Mark Rothstein 
University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas 
mrothstein@uh.edu 

The grant attempted to measure the effects of a Minnesota law enacted in 1983, which prohibits employers from obtaining any employee medical information that is not strictly related to the ability to perform the job. The investigators reviewed the cases filed with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, conducted interviews with Minnesota employment lawyers, surveyed occupational physicians and human resource managers, and assessed Minnesota economic data. The study concluded that the effects were not ascertainable because there was very little knowlege of the existence of the law by any of the groups. Nevertheless, the investigators determined that the Minnesota approach remains a more attractive alternative to preventing genetic discrimination in employment than genetic-specific laws recently enacted in 18 states. The findings are being published as: MA Rothstein, BD Gelb, & SG Craig, "Protecting Genetic Privacy by Permitting Employer Access Only to Job-Related Employee Medical Information: Analysis of a Unique Minnesota Law," American Journal of Law and Medicine 24 (1998): 399-417.