Justice committee  I think a rewording of that section could be entertained. Again, I don't have a legal background. One would want to protect the ability of pharmacists, for example, to prescribe and to use a point-of-care genetic test to prescribe the correct dose, for example, of the medication

Justice committee  Yes, that's very much a part of what we do. When we're discussing a predictive test with a patient—I'll use Huntington’s disease as an example—we discuss not only the implications for that person of a positive or negative test result, but depending on the family structure and how

Justice committee  Well, for insurance companies, their duty is to their shareholders. My duty as a doctor is to my patients. You've heard multiple examples today, and previously as well, of the way in which this issue interferes in patient care and how it can cost the health care system more money

Justice committee  It's an excellent question. The dilemma, really, is that many of the genetic tests that we discuss with patients are predictive tests. Take the example of Huntington's and someone at the age of 20 who has a test for Huntington's that shows they will get the condition, probably

Justice committee  No, I agree completely. It wouldn't change anything.

Justice committee  Thank you. I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. I believe that the amendment to the Human Rights Act is important and that it should enshrine these values as Canadian values, but by itself it will absolutely not be sufficient to protect patients. It won't give them a rec

Justice committee  I'm sorry, but I can't think of a single example where that could happen.

Justice committee  Yes, I think the idea itself was so foreign to us that we couldn't imagine it.