Genetic testing and primary care: a new ethic for a new setting

For several decades, clinical geneticists have espoused two key ethical principles, nondirectiveness and confidentiality. These principles made a great deal of sense in the highly personal and controversial setting of reproductive genetics. Now that clinical genetics has entered the primary care setting, clinicians are rethinking the strength of their commitment to these traditional norms and they are revamping their ethical priorities. Patients increasingly need advice about whether they should take genetic tests and whether and how they should respond to the test results. Patients also need to know about how this information will impact family members and whether other members of their family should be tested. Clinical geneticists may even consider breaking individual confidentiality in order to prevent harms to family members. Although clinical geneticists do not need to abandon nondirectiveness and confidentiality in this new setting, they may not strictly adhere to these principles in some circumstances in order to benefit patients and their families.