Developments in the new genetics

The advent of recombinant DNA has introduced novel ways of diagnosing genetic disorders. The application of these techniques in affected families, coupled with genetic counselling, should help prevent the recurrence of a proportion of cases, and thereby reduce a considerable amount of suffering, and in some cases the expense of caring for a severely affected individual. However, such aims may be achieved only when the importance of such services is more widely recognized and they become more generally available. Counselling and prenatal diagnostic services have been available in University Centres of Medical Genetics for at least the last 20 years yet still only a proportion of the population at risk avail themselves of these services. The role of Health Departments in ensuring that those at risk are aware of and then use these facilities is clear. Health education must play an important role in this regard. Furthermore, there is a real need for financial support to employ adequately trained medical and technical staff in such centres. Currently, these problems are being debated by such bodies as the Clinical Genetics Society and the Royal College of Physicians. With the co-operation, help and support of Public Health Departments in the future, these exciting developments will not remain within the confines of research laboratories but will be extended to the community at large. In this way all those at risk in the population can benefit.