Disclosure Dilemmas: Ethics of Genetic Prognosis after the 'Right to Know/Not to Know' Debate (Medical Law and Ethics) - Hardcover

Müller, Hansjakob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754674517 ISBN 13: 9780754674511

Publisher: Routledge, 2009

Synopsis

There is today, a fast growing availability of personal genetic information. Its prognostic impact and value for an individual or family member's health is sometimes unclear, while at others it is clear-cut. The issue of whether to disclose genetic information has a wide range of implications at the personal level and, more generally, how it affects concepts of preventive medicine and health policy. Avoiding the rhetoric of 'genetic exceptional ism', and drawing on an expanded field of bioethical, sociological and anthropological research, this book sets a new agenda for discussing the ethics surrounding the disclosure of prognostic genetic information. A hermeneutical approach reconsiders the ethics of disclosure in a variety of contexts in which genetic information is generated, requested, interpreted or communicated - from the provider perspective, but also from the moral perspectives of clients and their families. In situations of disclosure, in these different contexts, genetic information meets morality. Providers and recipients can become vulnerable to the revelation or concealment of information, and the forms in which it may be provided. This book invites readers to explore these contexts from an ethical viewpoint.

About this title

Review:

'This is a simply splendid book, at the cutting edge of bioethics, clinical genetics, and the social sciences. This deserves to be a landmark in scholarship on the ethics and practice of clinical medicine. Any clinician, ethicist or social scientist interested in contemporary medical practice would profit from reading it.' Richard Ashcroft, Queen Mary University of London, UK 'I heartily recommend this book both for practitioners of clinical genetics and genetic counselling and for all those interested in the social and ethical issues that arise in the clinical setting. The editors have assembled a very fine set of essays of 'informed reflection' upon these topics, written by a first rate set of international contributors.' Angus Clarke, Cardiff University, UK '...this book is highly recommended for everyone interested in the impact of our actions on future people-not for philosophers only.' Medicine, Health Care & Philosophy '...this book sketches a thorough map of some of the most pressing ethical issues arising from current developments in biomedicine. Its attempt to bridge the gaps between bioethics, genetic medicine, law and sociology is very valuable and makes the volume potentially useful to those from any of these disciplines... this volume shows quite compellingly the importance of taking seriously into account the medical, legal and social contexts in which biomedicine is situated. It will certainly enrich those who are interested in the applied ethics of biomedicine.' Genomics, Society and Policy

About the Author:

Christoph Rehmann-Sutter is a philosopher and molecular biologist, specialised in bioethics. He is head of the Unit for Ethics in the Bioscience at the University of Basel, and President of the Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics. He has published extensively in the fields of ethics of genetics and bioethics and is a Visiting Professor at BIOS, London School of Economics. Hansjakob Muller is professor emeritus of medical genetics at the University of Basel. He was head of the Division of Medical Genetics UKBB/DKBW where he serves now as a medical consultant. He was and is member of a several professional bodies and ethical committees including the Steering Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe and the Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics. He is author and co-author of more than 350 peer-reviewed publications and review articles as well as editors of 10 books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0754674517
• ISBN 13: 9780754674511
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296
• Editor: Rehmann-Sutter Christoph