[Ethical issues raised by direct-to-consumer personal genome analysis and whole body scans: discussion and contextualisation of a report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics].
The paradigm of personalised medicine has many different facets, further to the application of pharmacogenetics. We examine here (direct-to-consumer) personal genome analysis and whole body scans and summarise findings from the Nuffield Council's on Bioethics recent report "Medical profiling and online medicine: the ethics of 'personalised healthcare' in a consumer age". We describe the current situation in Germany with regard to access to such services, and contextualise the Nuffield Council's report with summaries of position statements by German professional bodies. We conclude with three points that merit examination further to the analyses of the Nuffield Council's report and the German professional bodies. These concern the role of indirect evidence in considering restrictive policies, the question of whether regulations should require commercial providers to contribute to the generation of better evidence, and the option of using data from evaluations in combination with indirect evidence in justifying restrictive policies.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics, London, Großbritannien. abuyx@nuffieldbioethics.org
Alena M
AM
Buyx
Daniel
D
Strech
Harald
H
Schmidt
D000328:Adult; D003132:Commerce / Q000941:ethics*; D020732:Cytogenetic Analysis / Q000941:ethics*; D004180:Direct Service Costs / Q000941:ethics; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D005820:Genetic Testing / Q000941:ethics*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000941:ethics*; D010358:Patient Participation; D011209:Power, Psychological; D057285:Precision Medicine / Q000941:ethics*; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000941:ethics*; D011331:Private Practice / Q000941:ethics; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000941:ethics*