The Genetic Discrimination Observatory (GDO) is a

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

-based international network of researchers and other stakeholders who support the research and prevention of

genetic discrimination Genetic discrimination occurs when people treat others (or are treated) differently because they have or are perceived to have a gene mutation(s) that causes or increases the risk of an inherited disorder. It may also refer to any and all discri ...

(GD)—discrimination based on genetics or other predictive health information. Their headquarters are currently located at the Centre of Genomics and Policy at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

in Montreal.

Staff and funding

The GDO staff comes from various fields such as

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

, law,

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

, and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

. The GDO received initial funding from Genome Canada ( Génome Québec in French), the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé, and the Network of Applied Medical Genetics (RMGA).

Projects

Forum québécois sur la discrimination génétique

In 2018, the GDO initiated its first project, the "''Forum québécois sur la discrimination génétique''" (Quebec forum on genetic discrimination) in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

World views

The GDO provides information about different countries and areas using interactive world views that show studies related to genetic discrimination and other categories in a live map format on the GDO's website. It is planned to cover nineteen different jurisdictions.

Case reporting

The GDO provides individuals from Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

the opportunity to report specific cases of genetic discrimination or health-based discrimination confidentially.

References