ABSTRACT
Both practice and research in medical genetics encounter numerous ethical issues, something that is inevitable given the many personal and sensitive aspects involved. Since medical genetics turned its back on eugenics after World War II, beginning with the example of Penrose and the Galton Laboratory, those working in the field have mostly been highly sensitive to these ethical aspects and have led the way in identifying and analysing them, and later in alerting those in other countries and other fields of medicine to their existence. Prenatal diagnosis and issues surrounding termination of pregnancy arose in the 1970s, but the most difficult have been those involving molecular genetic testing from the 1980s on, especially prediction of late-onset genetic disorders such as Huntington's disease. Extensive studies of these problems led to increasing involvement and collaboration of those in the social sciences and humanities, and to the creation of formal bodies such as the Human Genetics Commission and Nuffield Council on Bioethics, with numerous valuable reports influencing both government and professionals, in Britain and abroad. A related important development has been the growth of numerous lay societies for genetic disorders, often working closely with medical geneticists.
