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85 Ky. L.J. 665 (1996-1997)
Genetics, Genetic Testing, and the Specter of Discrimination: A Discussion Using Hypothetical Cases

handle is hein.journals/kentlj85 and id is 675 raw text is: Genetics, Genetic Testing, and
the Specter of Discrimination:
A Discussion Using Hypothetical Cases*
BY RICHARD H. UNDERWOOD**
AND RONALD G. CADLE***
ITiRODUCrION
M ost lawyers and law teachers have a limited scientific
background. They are, for the most part, pre-Copemicans. If
a lawyer has any knowledge of genetics it consists of some vague
memory from high school biology, having something to do with fruit flies
(the pesky drosophila) or with brother Mendel's smooth and wrinkled
peas. Still, genetic experiments have been with us since the beginning.
Consider Chapters 30 and 31 of Genesis:'
Jacob said unto Laban [Jacob's Father-in-Law and Master], Send me
away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.
* A version of this Article was presented during a teaching workshop at the
Medical Institute for Law Faculty held June 5-14, 1996, in Cleveland, Ohio. The
workshop was sponsored by the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and the
Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
** Spears-GilbertProfessor of Law, College of Law, University of Kentucky.
B.S. 1969, J.D. 1976, The Ohio State University. Professor Underwood teaches
a course in Law and Medicine at the University of Kentucky. He is a co-author
of TRIAL ETHIcs (1988) and MODERN LITIGATION AND PROFESSIONAL
RESPONSIBILITY HANDBOOK (1996). Professor Underwood is the Chairman of the
Kentucky Bar Association's Ethics and Unauthorized Practice Committees. He
began teaching a class in Law and Medicine at the University of Kentucky in
1985. He is a contributor to Emery Wilson, M.D. and L. Reed Polk, M. Div.,
PROFESSIONAL AND PRAcTIcE DEVELOPMENT (1990).
*** M.S., DepartmentofPediatrics, Division ofGeneticsandDysmorphology
University of Kentucky College of Medicine. See infra note 9.
' The principal author is a Sunday school drop-out who was tipped to the
story by a secondary source. See LARRY GONICK & MARK WHEELIS, THE
CARTOON GUIDE TO GENETICS 9-10 (1991).