Ethics and Genetics: A Workbook for Practitioners and Students

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Berghahn Books, 2003 - 144 páginas

Genetic information plays an increasingly important role in ourlives. As a result of the Human Genome Project, knowledge ofthe genetic basis of various diseases is growing, withimportant consequences for the role of genetics in clinicalpractice, health care systems and for society at large. In theclinical setting genetic testing may result in a better insightinto susceptibility for inheritable diseases, not only before orafter birth, but also at later stages in life. Besides prenataltesting and pre-conceptional testing, predictive testing hasresulted in new possibilities for the early detection, treatmentand prevention of inheritable diseases.

However, not all inheritable diseases that can be predicted onthe basis of genetic information can be treated or cured.Should we offer genetic tests to people for untreatablediseases? Should we test every individual who wants to knowhis or her genetic status? Should we inform family membersabout the results of genetic tests of individuals, even whenthere are no possibilities for treatment? What, in such cases,is the role of the "right-not-to-know"? Should we informfamily members when there is only an increased risk of adisease? This book deals with the ethical issues of clinicalgenetics, as well as ethical issues that arise in geneticscreening, the research of populations, and the use of geneticinformation for access to insurance and the workplace.

 

Índice

Ethics of Reproductive Genetic
5
Prenatal Testing and Selective Abortion
11
Summary
62
Genetic Research and Ethnicity
87
The Social Use of Genetic Information
93
Genetics and the Workplace
111
Are We Our Genes?
118
Summary
138
བཌྲ
150
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Página 143 - Statement of the American Society of Clinical Oncology: genetic testing for cancer susceptibility, adopted on February 20, 1996.

Sobre el autor (2003)

Guido de Wert is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Bioethics at the University of Maastricht and a Crown-appointed member of the Health Council of the Netherlands.

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