Again, this is a point of crucial importance for our understandin

Again, this is a point of crucial importance for our understanding of the future impact of the field.

Future prospects of community genetics Taking these observations as a starting point, I will now consider two possible scenarios as potentially relevant futures for community genetics. The future that is implied in the agenda of community genetics, obviously, is a future in which it is the health care system through which new applications of genetic knowledge are made available to individuals in the population in an ‘evidence-based’ way (Blancquaert 2000; Baird 2001; Gwinn and Khoury 2006). Accordingly, it is the professional who should Anlotinib mw decide for whom particular applications might be needed and useful; however, in discussing the role of community genetics in society, several authors also refer to the possibility of another future scenario. In NCT-501 price this scenario, genetic tests are becoming more easily available through commercial providers offering their products on the market direct to ‘consumers’ who are willing

to pay for it (Holzman 1998; Williams-Jones 2003). From the point of view of community genetics, this prospect is clearly seen as a threat that has to be averted by sound policies of regulation (Ronchi et al. 2000; Guillod 2000; Holzman 2006). Community genetics, in other words, will have to be developed in a societal landscape offering a variety of contexts in which applications of genetic knowledge may become available to future users, both inside and outside the health care system. One element in this landscape which will shape future applications is governmental regulation. Another element is the growth of commercial services, offering genetic tests on an international scale through the internet. What is the relevance of these observations for our understanding of the future impact of community genetics? There are two points which I see as most important here, one of which goes down to the heart of

community genetics itself. The first point is that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to resist by governmental next regulation a growing commercialisation of genetic services on a global scale. Moreover, and this is my second point, a scenario like this will become all the more probable in a world find more governed by a principle of informed choice, the very principle adopted by community genetics as its key concept. Community genetics, we may say, is based on an individual rights perspective, emphasizing autonomy and self-determination as fundamental values. Traditionally, individual rights have been conceived as a way to protect individuals against interventions—medical or otherwise—that may be harmful or unwanted, but as we may learn from the contents of Community Genetics, individual rights can be understood in terms of empowerment as well.

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