Personalised healthcare
New developments in medical profiling and online medicine are promised by their providers as leading to a new era of ‘personalised healthcare’.
These developments include direct-to-consumer personal genetic profiling and body imaging, and websites that provide health advice, storage of health records and medicines for sale. This report weighs up the benefits and harms, along with the ethical values that come into play.
read more »Genetics and behaviour
Research is exploring how genes and the environment influence behavioural traits such as aggression, anxiety, intelligence and sexual orientation.
This report addresses concerns over how this information could be used to try to predict, change or select such traits.
read more »Mental disorders
Research into the genetics of mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and depression, may help diagnosis and treatment.
This report considers the ethical concerns raised, for example, around reproductive decisions and stigma.
read more »Personal genetic profiling services lack evidence for claims
Direct-to-consumer personal genetic profiling services that claim to predict people’s health risks by analysing their DNA are often inconclusive and companies that sell them should provide better information about the evidence on which the results are based, says the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, in a new report on the ethics of so-called personalised healthcare services.
read more »Mental disorders - Chapter downloads
You can download the individual chapters of this report using the links below. (All files are PDFs and less than 150KB).
Chapter 2 - Definition and study of mental disorders
read more »Mental disorders - Key findings
This report examines the ethical issues that may arise in the course of genetic research into mental disorders and in the application of that research in clinical and other settings. Some of these issues arise because the conditions are genetic, and others because they relate to mental disorders.
A broad and humanistic perspective may be considered to have two basic ethical requirements: respect for human beings and human dignity, and the limitation of harm to, and suffering of, all human beings.
read more »Mental disorders - External consultation
A public consultation was launched in February 1997. More than 100 responses were received from a wide variety of organisations and individuals. Respondents included:
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individual clinicians and scientists
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other academics and individuals
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charities and other organisations
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mental health user groups, learned and professional organisations and regulatory bodies
Mental disorders - Terms of reference
(1) To survey the current field of research relating to the genetics of mental disorders and to report on recent and prospective advances.
(2) In particular, to review:
(a) whether there are sufficiently firm criteria for diagnosis;
(b) how substantial the evidence is implicating genetic influences.
(3) To review the potential clinical applications of the research.
read more »Experts warn against 'geneticisation' of mental disorders
Special safeguards must be implemented to protect people with mental disorders from genetic testing that would not be beneficial to that person, say the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. In their report, Mental Disorders and Genetics: the ethical context, published today (23 September, 1998), the ethical implications arising from genetic research and how the research is applied are reviewed on the basis of the fundamental need to preserve human respect and human dignity.
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