Advances in Genetic Testing Fraught with Privacy Issues

Advances in genetic medicine can create their own side-effect – privacy disputes within families. Genetic information, that allow scientists to isolate and treat the genes that cause disease, may impinge on relatives’ right to privacy if a tested individual chooses to make his results public, says a professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh.

“Most of our privacy laws focus on protecting the individual,” says Professor Graeme Laurie. “It’s not clear what happens when these rights conflict.”

Professor Laurie explains that family members may not want sensitive genetic information, such as the presence of a cancer-causing gene, to be easily accessible.

A 2004 report released by the European Commission on the protection of genetic data suggests a way of resolving the quandary, by making a distinction between the rights of the individual patient while acknowledging that relations should have an interest in, but not control over, protecting genetic data.