The recent research and technology development in medical genomics has raised new issues that are profoundly different from those encountered in traditional clinical research for which informed consent was developed. Global initiatives for international collaboration and public participation in genomics research now face an increasing demand for new forms of informed consent which reflect local...

Although inclusion of ethics as a study course in medical students' curricula is a common practice, special approaches in teaching ethics in the context of genetics should be considered. In the realm of genomics, there are several ethically sensitive topics such as diagnosis of genetic diseases, in vitro fertilization, and identification of genetic susceptibility to common diseases. In addition...

OBJECTIVE The completion of sequencing the human genome in 2003 has spurred the production and collection of genetic data at ever increasing rates. Genetic data obtained for clinical purposes, as is true for all results of clinical tests, are expected to be included in patients' medical records. With this explosion of information, questions of what, when, where and how to incorporate genetic da...

The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering [4], hereafter referred to as The Case against Perfection, written by Michael J. Sandel, builds on a short essay featured in The Atlantic Monthly magazine in 2004. Three years later, Sandel transformed his article into a book, keeping the same title but expanding upon his personal critique of genetic engineering. The purpose ...

International regulation Obtaining and use of genetic data have several particular implications for the rights of the patients and their relatives and frequently practitioners and researchers face some new conflicts to which law and ethics try to give an answer. Some countries have enacted national laws related to genetic analysis. At the international level a great efforts have been done to de...

communities. Many communities and tribal governments have established research and ethics review boards to evaluate proposed projects in their communities, stemming from a growing awareness and sophistication of issues surrounding genetic and biomedical research, including individual versus community (or cultural) risk, adequacy of individual versus community consent issues, confidentiality, re...

BACKGROUND Screening for Down's syndrome forms part of routine obstetric practice. Ethical considerations relating to genetic screening form a major part of the workload of research ethics committees. This study investigated the attitudes of research ethics committee members to several conditions varying in clinical severity and prognosis, including Down's syndrome. METHODS The members of 40 ...