Arnold A, Moseley R
J Med Ethics. 1976 Mar;2(1):12-7.
Advances in understanding genetic disorders have been rapid in the last few years and with them the need and desire for genetic counselling have grown. Almost simultaneously, particularly in the USA, several large screening programmes have been initiated to screen large numbers of people who may be carriers of such deleterious genes as those of Tay-Sachs disease and sickle cell anaemia. The authors of this paper, clinical medical students at University College Hospital, London, spent some time studying the ethical issues raised. The first part of their study, which is not published here, relates to the biochemistry of certain genetic disorders, so leading up to the aspect of the subject which must concern readers of this journal, genetic counselling. At present genetic counselling is generally the province of the medical practitioner working with clinical biochemists, and in this paper their function is described and how programmes of screening for carriers are designed. Whether the subjects of the screening tests are found to be 'innocent' or 'guilty' psychological problems confront them, and of these the genetic counsellor must be aware. In fact the range of ethical problems raised by such counselling is wide and can only be sketched in this article.
在过去几年里，人们对遗传性疾病的认识迅速提高，随之而来的是对遗传咨询的需求和渴望也与日俱增。几乎与此同时，特别是在美国，已经启动了几个大型筛查项目，以筛查大量可能携带诸如泰 - 萨克斯病和镰状细胞贫血等有害基因的人群。本文的作者是伦敦大学学院医院的临床医学学生，他们花了一些时间研究由此引发的伦理问题。他们研究的第一部分（此处未发表）涉及某些遗传性疾病的生物化学，进而引出了本杂志读者必然关注的主题——遗传咨询。目前，遗传咨询通常是与临床生物化学家合作的医生的工作领域，本文描述了他们的职责以及如何设计携带者筛查项目。无论筛查测试的对象被判定为“无辜”还是“有罪”，他们都会面临心理问题，而遗传咨询师必须意识到这些问题。事实上，这种咨询引发的伦理问题范围很广，本文只能略作概述。
