Applied to the study of the human genome, a goal of GWAS...

Question

Applied to the study of the human genome, a goal of GWAS is to locate chromosome regions that are likely to contain genes influencing the risk of disease. Specific genes can be identified in these regions, and particular mutant alleles that increase disease risk can be sequenced. To date, the identification of alleles that increase disease risk has occasionally led to a new therapeutic strategy, but more often the identification of disease alleles is the only outcome.

What personal or ethical issues arising from GWAS might be of concern to physicians or to those who might carry an allele that increases disease risk?

Accepted Answer

Hi, everybody. Here's our next question. Physicians must ensure that patients clearly understand what participation in A G W A s entails and that they have the right to withdraw from the study at any time. This principle in medical ethics is called a informed consent B, accountability C fidelity or D veracity. Well, first, let's make sure we understand what G W A s stands for. So what we're talking about when we say we're discussing participation in A G W A S. So this stands for genome wide association studies and the purpose of these studies are to identify genomic variants associated with risk for a disease or a particular treat. So, studying people who carry these diseases or traits or their family members to look for variants in their DNA sequence that might indicate a risk for those things. And we're asking for what principle in medical ethics means that patients in these studies clearly understand what participation means, meaning, um what are risks and benefits of participating? What are the goals of the research and just what's entailed in participating? Are there blood tests, are there treatments other things like that? And then the fact that they do have the right to withdraw from the study at any time. And this is the principle of choice, a informed consent. So the word informed kind of gives us that clue that you're talking about providing information to participants. Let's just take a quick look at our other answer. Choices here. All of which are principles of medical ethics, accountability. Choice B means that you create an accurate account of the research to allow people to understand the decisions made in the process of this research. So that would involve careful record keeping, that will be looked over by other people. So that would be why choice B is not our correct answer. Since that's talking about the researchers' responsibility to keep track and keep a record of what they're doing. Choice is fidelity and fidelity. We can recall means loyalty. The idea of building a trusting relationship between a researcher and participants so that the researcher is not viewing participants in a study just as a means to an end for their own research, but has a loyalty to the patients in and of themselves and that the patients can trust that the researcher will give them accurate information and keep them informed. So that's why choice C is not describing specifically what we're talking about here. And then finally, choice D veracity, meaning truthfulness. And that one's pretty obvious just that researchers have an obligation to report their results truthfully, even if they weren't the results they wanted but not the topic we're discussing here. Again, we're saying, what is the principle of medical ethics saying that patients must clearly understand, be provided with under information, allowing them to understand what participation in these G W A s involves and that they have the right to withdraw at any time. And that would be the principle of choice, a informed consent. See you in the next video.

Key Concepts

Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS)

Ethical Implications of Genetic Testing

Informed Consent

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