A physician outlines the concept of the family covenant, an agreement between consenting family members that defines exactly how and when medical information is divulged to other family members.
Research is often conducted without the knowledge or consent of those whose tissues are banked and poses possible harms to social groups if information about a few members is unscientifically applied to all.
Siddhartha Devarakonda, MD, Ramaswamy Govindan, MD, and Peter S. Hammerman, MD, PhD
While next-generation genome-sequencing technology has great potential to aid cancer research, ethical challenges concerning privacy and confidentiality and the ownership of inventions remain.
Wendy Foth, Carol Waudby, and Murray H. Brilliant, PhD
Certificates of confidentiality, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, allow researchers to refuse to disclose identifying information about research participants in any civil, legal, or other government proceeding. This level of protection is said to promote enrollment in research studies.