Ethical guidelines and considerations in medical genetic researches

ABSTRACT

Ethical issues are common to all sciences, and biological and medical sciences are no exception. Since these sciences deal directly with the physical and mental health of humans, they are exposed to thorough assessment to maintain the individuals, prestige and dignity. Development and application of cellular and molecular biology in medical sciences cause challenges and responsibilities in ethics, not easily predictable. This is because of three general properties of genetic information 1] It has private and familial concepts; 2] It often is related to the disease in the feature, hence it has predictive properties that can provide information about the next generation, and can also provide data on previous generations and 3] Genetic tests often diagnose some diseases, for which there is no efficient treatment or prevention. Hence the predictive and risk-assessing nature of genetic information has made human genetic material invaluable to different organizations and unfortunately open to misuse by health care planners, insurers and employers. Furthermore social discrimination and psychological injuries also threaten individuals undergoing genetics testing. This review article discusses the ethical issues raised in the area of genetic research, such as informed consent, confidentiality, assessment of damage and utility, ownership of genetic findings and recall of family members