Disclosing genetic information to family members. Do old paradigms fit the new medicine?
Launched in 1990, the Human Genome Project (HGP), an ambitious, international, federally funded project to map and sequence all human genes, has rapidly expanded our genetic knowledge. Not only does the HGP promise to arm physicians with impressive diagnostic tools, its ultimate target is radical improvement in therapeutic and preventive interventions in a new era of genetic medicine. At the same time, however, the genetic revolution poses momentous ethical, legal, and social questions. During the past decade, a substantial--and unresolved--discourse has emerged about such matters as genetic privacy, genetic discrimination, research with stored tissue samples, ownership of genetic material and information, gene patenting, and the genomic challenge to time-honored concepts of health and disease.
Olick
R S
RS
University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, USA.
D017007:Duty to Warn; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005190:Family; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D005820:Genetic Testing; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D014342:Truth Disclosure