Ethical issues and Huntington's disease

The practice of genetic counselling gives rise to many ethical dilemmas, and counsellors need to be familiar with the principles of biomedical ethics. The primary principles include respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. A case of identical twins at 50% risk for Huntington&#...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inSouth African medical journal Vol. 103; no. 12 Suppl 1; pp. 1023 - 1026
Main Authors Kromberg, Jennifer G R, Wessels, Tina-Marié
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published South Africa Health & Medical Publishing Group 01.12.2013
Subjects
Decision Making
Diagnosis
Diseases in Twins - genetics
Ethical aspects
Ethics, Medical
Genetic aspects
Genetic counseling
Genetic Counseling - ethics
Genetic counselors
Genetic Testing - ethics
Humans
Huntington Disease - diagnosis
Huntington Disease - genetics
Huntington's chorea
Personal Autonomy
Practice
Twins, Monozygotic - genetics
South Africa
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The practice of genetic counselling gives rise to many ethical dilemmas, and counsellors need to be familiar with the principles of biomedical ethics. The primary principles include respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. A case of identical twins at 50% risk for Huntington's disease, in which only one twin sought predictive testing for this dominantly inherited disease, created several ethical dilemmas. Another case where predictive testing was carried out on two young children, at high risk, by a laboratory at the request of an adoption agency and a doctor, with a view to giving information to the foster parents, also posed many ethical conundrums for the counsellor. The ethical issues that arose in these cases are discussed in this paper. 
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0256-9574
DOI:10.7196/SAMJ.7146