Genetic and biochemical screening for endocrine disease: II. Ethical issues.

The ability to test for specific genes conferring susceptibility to a variety of diseases has profound ethical implications for the way in which we care for patients. Legislators and health care insurers are scrambling to address the aspects of genetic screening that they believe fall within their purview. Critical to the development of appropriate societal regulations regarding genetic screening is a fundamental understanding of the ethical issues involved. A review of those concerns and the areas in which they interface with legal and insurance issues is the topic of this paper.