E quando o risco está em mim? A utilização das provas genéticas preditivas nas relações de trabalho à luz da bioética da libertação no pensamento de Enrique Dussel

Abstract

In the field of worker health there is a growing interest in the use of predictive genetic testing. Concomitantly, the results from these genetic tests have been used for discriminatory purposes, practices which many times come about under the guise of and justified by the discourse of risk prevention and safety. Using as a theoretical guide the Bioethics of Liberation as understood by Enrique Dussel, we critically look at the paradoxes produced by genetics, the benefits/harms of its possible impact on labor relations. From this starting point of Dusselian ethics of liberation, we note how the work environment is immersed in the production of a colonial discourse which is constantly mobilized to produce subjectivities that seek to cover up the exploitation of the worker’s body in order to obtain greater productivity and greater profit. These interests, which have always been present in the work environment and which remodel and adapt themselves to every socioeconomic context, are potentialized during the era of genetics with the possibility of the creation of a new category of individuals: the category of the “genetically excluded,” of the “unhireables.” What we see is that total prohibition without exceptions, or total permission for predictive genetic testing, are dichotomous alternatives that do not meet the legitimate concerns and interests of those involved, do not respect the human right of development and scientific research, and also are not befitting of the duty to promote and protect the health of the worker. In the development of this study, we present the main bioethical and legal regulations related to predictive genetic mapping as an instrument of controlling the worker and violating his/her rights, and then propose limits to the use of these tests. The coming together of the genome with bioethics of liberation and human labor is a challenging subject, being intimately related to production, reproduction, and the full development of human life.