Ethical and Privacy Issues in Genetic Databases

With the recent advances in genetic and computer technology, enormous databases containing genetic information have become available for research and other purposes. An example of such databases is the Icelandic Health Database containing health and genetic records about the total population of Iceland. This has raised many privacy and ethical questions, both among health professionals and the general public. Many agree that genetic information bears more ethical and privacy concerns than other health databases. In this paper we review the main privacy and ethical issues connected to genetic information and we pay special attention to disclosure of individual values through statistical analysis.