Toward the ethical treatment of whole genome research participants

Recent technological developments have made it possible for scientists to sequence an entire human genome, but these advances may be a mixed blessing. While much has been made of the benefits of whole-genome sequencing, from improved disease diagnosis to rational drug design, the impacts on the privacy and autonomy of individual participants has received much less scrutiny. In a new essay published in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, Timothy Caulfield and his colleagues argue that the ability to sequence a person's entire genome has created a whole new set of moral challenges that standard research ethics guidelines were not designed to solve.

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<p><a href="http://www.physorg.com/news125652474.html">Toward the ethical treatment of whole genome research participants</a></p> <p>Recent technological developments have made it possible for scientists to sequence an entire human genome, but these advances may be a mixed blessing. While much has been made of the benefits of whole-genome sequencing, from improved disease diagnosis to rational drug design, the impacts on the privacy and autonomy of individual participants has received much less scrutiny. In a new essay published in the open-access journal <i>PLoS Biology</i>, Timothy Caulfield and his colleagues argue that the ability to sequence a person's entire genome has created a whole new set of moral challenges that standard research ethics guidelines were not designed to solve.</p>