Ethical and legal issues in medical management of sex chromosome-abnormal adolescents.
The primary purpose of this paper is to consider ethical and legal issues raised in medical management of adolescents with XYY, XXY and XXX chromosomal characteristics. It will therefore focus upon the issues of informing the parents of affected adolescents, and the adolescents themselves of their condition and its implications, upon medical and other responses to the implications, and upon research and experimentation conducted to relieve and improve the medical, psychologic, and educational state of affected children. Before considering these central issues of clinical management, however, at least brief attention must be paid to preliminary matters of a social, public health, or health policy nature. These matters concern prenatal identification of the chromosomal condition, and newborn screening programs aimed at detection of general or specific genetic abnormalities. Further, after the more central issues have been considered, some thoughts ought to be given to use and possible misuse of genetic data in modern societies, although space unfortunately will not permit such thoughts to be explored here [1].
D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D006805:Human Experimentation; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D008297:Male; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012729:Sex Chromosome Aberrations / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014997:XYY Karyotype / Q000175:diagnosis