Genetic information and its legal Protection

Nowadays، genetic information is one of the most practical information in medical researches and therapeutic cares. Genetic researches and health care providers have paid special attention to the gained information from individuals’ backgrounds for decades to treat hereditary disorders and to prevent their infection. Increasing and widespread use of genetic information and biological data in different sections and easy access to them and also the risks and redress able harms which disclose of such data can inflict harm on the guardians and members of the families have made the governments and state cover these under their protective policies. This is affirmed by different kinds of Acts، declarations، international guidelines and universal proclamations. The governments have been obliged to observe individuals’ genetic privacy. Nevertheless، countries have taken different policies regarding protection of genetic information. These can be categorized in three groups: The first group contains the countries which have clearly protected such information in their Acts and considered punishments for those who disclose genetic information without consent such as United States of America and Australia; the second group are the countries which didn’t protect such data legally and have made no difference between these and other private data such as EU member states، the third group includes those countries which didn’t care for genetic information or paid little action to it such as most of under developing countries including Iran. The present article studies the approach taken by international organizations regarding genetic information and legal protection of different countries with respect to such information. Meanwhile، this writing emphasizes on this fact that nationals of the third group countries face a legal gap concerning protection of their genetic information.