Abstract

The many advantages in human genetics and their contingent problems and implications make it increasingly necessary to understand the converging relationships with other fields. The interaction between genetics and medicine, medicine and the community, and genetics and the community, are obvious. However, the point where the three sets of concerns intersect comprises issues of social, political, legal, economic, and moral-ethical impact. Some issues are simply tangential, but others that are more controversial reach to the philosophical core of scientific inquiry itself. That intersection of issues prompted this collection, which was sparked by a series of seminars. So that present and future decision makers can deal effectively with these growing reciprocal concerns and their consequences-real and potential they need an overview of the significant genetic issues in public health. Our approach has been to focus mainly on the applications of genetic knowledge and on its various concomitant problems. In addition to general remarks in the Foreword and comments preceding each section, transitional introductions precede chapters where necessary.