The New Language of Genetic Medicine

9-11-2012: The New Language of Genetic Medicine and its Implications for the Ethical Conduct of Human Research
Fred Grinnell, UT Southwestern

Four questions are relevant to the condition of sick individuals. What is the disease? What is the treatment? Why did this happen now? Could it have been prevented? In the age of genetics, the conventional language of medicine is undergoing radical transformation. The new normal increasingly equates disease with risk rather than already present symptoms. The embryo increasingly becomes a potential patient even though society does not agree on whether or not the embryo is a person. And treatment increasingly means preventing the disease by preventing the person who might get the disease. These changes in the meaning of the language of medicine present new and difficult challenges to the ethical conduct of human research.