Who Owns Your Genes?

By Diana Brazzell, Co-Founder & Executive Editor, Footnote This post was originally published on Footnote, a website that brings academic research and ideas to a broader audience. New forms of genetic testing can predict whether a couple will have a child with cystic fibrosis, guide doctors in selecting the most effective chemotherapy for a breast cancer patient, and help researchers unlock the causes of Alzheimer's disease. While these advances have the potential to save lives and transform medical research, they also raise serious ethical questions about the balance between privacy and health - questions that scientists, bioethicists, patients, and families are just beginning to confront. Who Has a Claim to Your DNA? Does someone have a right to know if their aunt has a genetic condition they might also have inherited, even if she wants to keep it private? What obligation does the aunt, or the doctor who treats her, have to share this information with relatives who might be at risk?(a) If the aunt passes away, who decides how her genetic information should be shared after her death? At the heart of these ethical debates is a question about the ownership of our genes: Does your genetic profile belong solely to you, or do family members who share parts of your DNA have some claim to it? In a recent survey by Mayo Clinic epidemiologist Gloria Petersen, University of Minnesota legal scholar Susan Wolf, and UC San Francisco bioethicist Barbara Koenig, 60 percent of people s...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news