Risk Screening, Testing, and Diagnosis: Ethical Aspects

After an initial clarification of the notion of the risk, a brief discussion of the distinction between testing and screening, and of the difficulties of defining genetic information in a precise way follows an overview of public concerns raised by genetic testing and screening. Next section reviews various types of ethical issues in this context. The challenges are not the same for all types and purposes of such methods. The following sections therefore discuss issues raised by preimplantation diagnosis, prenatal diagnosis, prenatal and neonatal screening, presymptomatic testing, testing at the workplace and forensic uses of genetic tests. Finally some future concerns are outlined briefly.