Ethics of clinical genetics: the spirit of the profession and trials of suitability from 1970 to 2000
Titel:
Ethics of clinical genetics: the spirit of the profession and trials of suitability from 1970 to 2000
Auteur:
Jallinoja, Piia T.
Verschenen in:
Critical public health
Paginering:
Jaargang 12 (2002) nr. 2 pagina's 103-118
Jaar:
2002-06-01
Inhoud:
As research on and applications of human genetics expanded remarkably during the 1990s, claims were increasingly raised that genetics and its applications should also be considered from an ethical viewpoint. Here medical ethics is the subject of sociological analysis. The paper examines how medical ethics gradually became part of the argumentation and practices of genetic counselling and screening during three decades (1970-2000) by analysing screening and counselling projects and physicians' argumentation in Finland. Medical ethics is analysed as part of a network of experts, regulations and mores, and is regarded as an ongoing process embedded in the processes of medicine, the healthcare system and legislation. It appears that there were two main forms of medical ethics. First, there was the medical ethics that refers to the age-old ways of proper practising of medicine and helping the suffering patient, i.e. the spirit inspiring the profession. Second, during recent decades, medical ethics gradually became expressed in more operationalized and formalized forms, examples of which are codes of ethics, the ethics committees governing medical research and the psychosocial questionnaire studies examining clients' satisfaction and approval. The present paper analyses the medically and morally complicated circumstances in which new formulations of ethics as well as the revival of old foundational medical ethics gained ground.
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