Williams-Jones Bryn
Centre for Family Research, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Homerton College, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RF, UK.
Community Genet. 2003;6(1):46-57. doi: 10.1159/000069538.
The Internet has become a "global marketplace", enabling consumers to purchase health care products and services, including genetic testing, through a variety of national and international sources. A web search for commercial (for-profit) genetic testing companies found 12 with a web presence that were offering adult genetic susceptibility testing, of which 3 offered direct-to-consumer access. In this paper, Canada--with its educated population and universal health care system--will serve as a case study for illustrating the social, ethical and policy issues (e.g., information privacy, just access to health care, product safety, and access to unbiased health information) arising with Internet-based access to commercial genetic testing. Health professionals, policy makers and consumers in all developed nations will be faced with complex technical, social and ethical issues, but without further discussion it will not be possible to determine how best to manage and maximise the benefits of this increased accessibility and choice, while minimising the associated personal and social costs.
互联网已成为一个“全球市场”，使消费者能够通过各种国内外渠道购买医疗保健产品和服务，包括基因检测。在网上搜索商业（营利性）基因检测公司时，发现有12家公司有网站，提供成人基因易感性检测，其中3家提供直接面向消费者的服务。在本文中，加拿大——因其受过良好教育的人口和全民医疗保健系统——将作为一个案例研究，以说明基于互联网获取商业基因检测所引发的社会、伦理和政策问题（如信息隐私、公平获得医疗保健、产品安全以及获取无偏见的健康信息）。所有发达国家的卫生专业人员、政策制定者和消费者都将面临复杂的技术、社会和伦理问题，但如果不进行进一步讨论，就无法确定如何最好地管理并最大化这种增加的可及性和选择所带来的益处，同时将相关的个人和社会成本降至最低。
