The hope is to discover clues to these conditions before symptoms appear. The goal is to detect susceptible individuals--those who are "at risk." Reflecting the growing focus on the hereditary basis of disease, genetic testing is becoming a part of general medical practice--so much so that, in 1992, the American Medical Association recognized medical genetics as a separate subspecialty of internal medicine.
Scientists should be aware of the potential abuses of the predictive information generated by their research and how such information is influencing social policy. The significance of this information in the 1990s stems from the current social and political climate--the increasing sense of crisis over the cost of health-care services, the prevalence of criminal violence, and the general state of the economy. In the field of health care, the Clinton administration has proposed reforms that call for cost containment and a rational distribution of benefits through changes in ...
