ABSTRACT
The history of traditional medical ethics, and of bioethics more recently, demonstrates how different values have been upheld at different times - how ethical frameworks have developed, how certain arguments have risen to prominence and others fallen into disrepute. This chapter pertains also to the value debates in bioethics more generally, however a more specific focus shall lie in human genetics. In relation to the advancement of human genetics and its various applications, it has recently become commonplace to argue that the individual-centred framework should be replaced or at least complemented by one where more collective values and public interests are represented. The chapter focuses on the examples of informed consent confidentiality and the sharing of data as exemplary concepts within these shifting ethical frameworks. The claim here is that there is no need to set liberal and communitarian frameworks in opposition to each other.
