Responsibility and preventive medicine: Ethics, genetic and the asymptomatic ill

My research project is to examine the implications of genetic testing. As our knowledge of the genetic etiology of disease continues to grow, more conditions are identified as involving a genetic component. Currently there is great interest in pursuing the development of tests to identify individuals who are at risk for a genetic disease or disorder. There are, however, few treatment options available for those who are ¿at risk.¿ Thus, there must be some other principle to explain the interest in genetic testing. I propose that the interest comes from the principle that those who are identified as at risk should take responsibility by avoiding the environmental components that lead to the conditions for which they are at risk. Ideas of responsibility are notoriously complex. My research will examine philosophical ideas of responsibility to see how these may affect the experience of being labelled ¿at risk.¿ My research project will improve the delivery of health services by providing genetic counsellors and ¿at risk¿ patients with an ethical theory that charts the responsibilities of patients with genetic susceptibilities. My research will provide a tool for dealing with some of the anxieties associated with being labelled ¿at risk¿ for a genetic condition.