Genetic Information, the Principle of Rescue, and Special Obligations

In “Genetic Privacy, Disease Prevention, and the Principle of Rescue,” Madison Kilbride argues that patients have a duty to warn biological family members about clinically actionable adverse genetic findings. The duty does not stem from the special obligations that we may have to family members, she...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Hastings Center report 2018-05, Vol.48 (3), p.18-19
Main Authors: LIAO, S. MATTHEW, MacKENZIE, JORDAN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Another Voice
Bioethics
Genetics
Medical ethics
Patients rights
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In “Genetic Privacy, Disease Prevention, and the Principle of Rescue,” Madison Kilbride argues that patients have a duty to warn biological family members about clinically actionable adverse genetic findings. The duty does not stem from the special obligations that we may have to family members, she argues, but rather follows from the principle of rescue, which she understands as the idea that one ought to prevent, reduce, or mitigate the risk of harm to another person when the expected harm is serious and the cost or risk to oneself is sufficiently moderate. We doubt, however, whether the principle of rescue can ground a duty to warn in the cases Kilbride envisages, and we suggest that Kilbride may have underappreciated the role that special obligations could play in generating a duty to warn family members.
ISSN:0093-0334
1552-146X
DOI:10.1002/hast.850