UK report calls for cooperation on population genotyping

BMJ 1999;318:692 ( 13 March )

News extra

UK report calls for cooperation on population genotyping

Tessa Richards, BMJ

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 initiative to genotype the whole Icelandic population illustrates (2 January, p 11)�by the pharmaceutical industry.

Although genetic testing of individuals at risk of inherited monogenic disease is a routine service under the NHS, only pharmaceutical companies have the technological expertise and resources to undertake genetic testing of whole populations, and their motive for doing . . . [Full text of this article]

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