GLOBAL MEDICAL ETHICS
Why tell asymptomatic children of the risk of an adult-onset disease in the family but not test them for it?
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
P J Malpas
Department of Philosophy, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand; p.malpas{at}auckland.ac.nz
This paper first considers why it is important to give children genetic information about hereditary conditions in the family, which will go on to affect their lives in a salient way. If it is important to inform children that they are at risk for an adult-onset disease that exists in the family, why should they not also grow up knowing whether they actually carry the genetic mutation? Central to this discussion is the importance of the process of disclosure and the environment in which genetic information is divulged. It is concluded that the reasons given for defending disclosure of genetic conditions in the family to children are also important reasons to cautiously defend predictive genetic testing of children for adult-onset diseases.
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- Reasons not to test children at risk of adult onsent disease
- Anneke Lucassen, et al.
- JME Online, 13 Dec 2006 [Full text]
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