Department of Molecular Medicine, Legal Medicine Unit, University of Padua, , Padova, Italy.
J Med Ethics. 2014 Mar;40(3):177-81. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2012-101062. Epub 2013 Feb 26.
Misattributed paternity or 'false' paternity is when a man is wrongly thought, by himself and possibly by others, to be the biological father of a child. Nowadays, because of the progression of genetics and genomics the possibility of finding misattributed paternity during familial genetic testing has increased. In contrast to other medical information, which pertains primarily to individuals, information obtained by genetic testing and/or pedigree analysis necessarily has implications for other biologically related members in the family. Disclosing or not a misattributed paternity has a number of different biological and social consequences for the people involved. Such an issue presents important ethical and deontological challenges. The debate centres on whether or not to inform the family and, particularly, whom in the family, about the possibility that misattributed paternity might be discovered incidentally, and whether or not it is the duty of the healthcare professional (HCP) to disclose the results and to whom. In this paper, we consider the different perspectives and reported problems, and analyse their cultural, ethical and legal dimensions. We compare the position of HCPs from an Italian and British point of view, particularly their role in genetic counselling. We discuss whether the Oviedo Convention of the Council of Europe (1997) can be seen as a basis for enriching the debate.
错误的或“虚假的”父权是指一个男人被自己和可能被他人错误地认为是孩子的生物学父亲。如今，由于遗传学和基因组学的发展，在进行家族遗传检测时发现错误父权的可能性增加了。与主要涉及个人的其他医疗信息不同，遗传检测和/或系谱分析获得的信息必然会对家族中其他具有生物学关系的成员产生影响。透露或不透露错误的父权对相关人员有许多不同的生物学和社会后果。这个问题提出了重要的伦理和职业道德挑战。争论的焦点是是否告知家庭，特别是家庭中的哪些人，可能会偶然发现错误的父权的可能性，以及医疗保健专业人员（HCP）是否有责任披露结果以及向谁披露。在本文中，我们考虑了不同的观点和报告的问题，并分析了它们的文化、伦理和法律层面。我们从意大利和英国的角度比较了 HCP 的立场，特别是他们在遗传咨询中的作用。我们讨论了 1997 年欧洲委员会的《奥维多公约》是否可以被视为丰富辩论的基础。
