Early Warning: Cases and Ethical Guidance for Presymptomatic Testing in Genetic Diseases (Medical Ethics) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253334012 ISBN 13: 9780253334015

Publisher: Indiana University Press (IPS), 1999

Synopsis

This book presents 29 case studies that identify the most important ethical issues that are likely to emerge from new technologies of genetic testing and develops a series of guidelines based on those case studies. By providing the clinical origins and rationale behind each of its recommendations, the book will help readers think through the ethical issues and will assist them in the development of additional guidelines.

About this title

Product Description:

[ Early Warning: Cases and Ethical Guidance for Presymptomatic Testing in Genetic Diseases Medical Ethics By ( Author ) Nov-1998 Hardcover

Synopsis:

"For genetic counselors and clinical geneticists, this book will serve as an invaluable source book...For policy makers, it offers a unique set of guidelines to use as starting points for professional consensus and rule-making...Finally, for bioethicists, this book will immediately be taken up as a touchstone as a paradigm of clinical bioethical casuistry". - Neric Juengst, Center for Biomedical Ethics, Case Western. Advances in genetic testing are making possible identification of a growing number of diseases linked to genetic defects.For people at risk for a genetic disorder and for those who counsel them genetic testing brings with it a host of difficult ethical concerns. Should a fetus be tested for Huntington disease? Should a woman try to find out if she is at a high risk for breast cancer? Should counselors reveal negative test results to clients who decide after testing that they'd rather not know? As we increase our ability to predict the likely onset later in life of a genetic disease, what shall we do with this knowledge?

This book presents 29 case studies that identify the most important ethical issues that are likely to emerge from new technologies of genetic testing and develops a series of guidelines based on the case studies.The authors believe that guideline formation is dependent on case analysis and that any statement of general guidelines must follow from concrete, practical discussion of specific situations. For these reasons, the guidelines presented are rooted in the case discussions and follow from the resolution of the cases. By providing the clinical origins and rationale behind each of its recommendations, the book aims to provide guidance for thinking through the ethical issues as well as a starting point for development of additional guidelines.The authors write, "The issues with which we are wrestling in this book are new, however much they may embody perennial human problems and concerns. The stakes for individuals at risk for genetic disease are high, but although our technical knowledge is expanding rapidly, our fund of moral wisdom and our level of social consensus are low.

In these circumstances, it seems most appropriate to adopt a stance of moral modesty and a style in which the dominant tone is inquiry and deliberation, rather than the enunciation of a crisp verdict. We think the place to begin is with the conflicts and uncertainties that confront counselors and consultants; any guidelines that may be drawn should be clearly and explicitly connected to those conflicts and to uncertainties that may be unresolvable."

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press (IPS)
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0253334012
• ISBN 13: 9780253334015
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 200
• Editor: Smith David H., Dworkin Roger B., Granbois Judith A.