Consultation
Advisory board for the Austrian Ministry of Health
The competent authority for the execution of the Gene Technology Act is the
Federal Ministry of Health. As an expert body the Austrian
“Gentechnikkommission” (Advisory Board on Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering)
provides advice to the Austrian Ministry of Health in all genetic testing issues inter
alia.
Having scrutinized and intensely discussed the questions and proposals in the
questionnaire the Austrian Advisory Board on Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering
and its Scientific Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing and Human Gene Therapy
decided to refrain from answering the questionnaire in detail: Some of the questions
are ambiguous in their meaning; others can’t be answered seriously without knowing
more about future development.
As a matter of fact, in Austria most of the issues involved are already regulated by
law: Genetic tests, especially predictive genetic tests are regulated by the Austrian
Gene Technology Act (GTG) since 1994. According to this act, facilities, where
molecular genetic tests for the diagnosis of a predisposition or the identification of a
carrier status of inherited diseases (predictive genetic tests) are performed, need to
be approved by the competent authority.
As far as the use of data from predictive genetic tests is concerned, § 67 of the
Austrian Gene Technology Act stipulates that any use of these data is prohibited for
employers and insurance companies. It reads as follows:
§ 67: Employers and insurers including authorised representatives and
co-workers thereof are prohibited to collect, to demand, to accept or else
to make use of results from genetic tests of their employees, job
applicants or insurees or insurance canvassers. This prohibition also
covers the demand for delivery and the acceptance of body substances
for genetic test purposes.
In our opinion § 67 is the appropriate regulation for this issue. The Austrian Advisory
Board on Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering therefore supports equally
restrictive regulations on the European level.