Biotechnologies and predictive medicine: legal aspects

Scientific progress in molecular biology and genetics is now providing the medical field with new OtoolsO for diagnosis of possible gene alterations which may be connected with the risk of disease later in life. The development of predictive medicine incurs novel problems in the relationship of the medical doctor and the individual at risk of disease, with particular reference to the identification of situations in which genetic testing may be relevant, the type of information which one should give the individual in order to have the informed consent for the diagnosis and the type of possible therapy taking into account the confidential aspect of using the data produced. These problems are exmined in the light of ethical citations and guidelines which are included in the National Comittee for Bioethics in Gene Therapy, 1991, the Italian privacy law, 1996, the European Convention on Bioethics, 1996, the 98/44/CE Directive on the Patentability of Biotechnological Inventions and the Deontological Medical Code, 1998.