The government must work with the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and the public to define the policy issues posed by the rapid advances in genetics and to agree terms under which population genotyping might proceed, according to a report from the School of Public Policy in London.

Currently, public policy lags behind the science, and the social and ethical issues posed by widespread genotyping, particularly with respect to the privacy and confidentiality of genetic data, are not being actively confronted. Meanwhile, the pace is being set-as the recent …