With good planning and good will, medical professionals’ right of conscience and patients’ rights to controversial services can be both protected and accommodated.
Presymptomatic genetic testing for neurodegenerative diseases can help patients make effective treatment decisions, but the medical profession needs to ensure that the increasing use of the tests is done responsibly.
Medical ethicists have discussed the use of race classification in determining disease prevalence and the response of specific ethnic groups to different medications.
Physicians can use specific communication techniques to help a patient who has a low health literacy level understand a medical diagnosis and treatment procedure.
Physicians need to take an active role in improving the genetic literacy of the general population and also push for public health policies that make new genetic tools available to everyone.
Genetic information is redefining what society and the medical profession considers to be normal and what departures from the norm are deserving of medical intervention.
When patients and physicians disagree on the use of genetic engineering technology, physicians must act in accordance with professional ethics and society's guidelines.