ADPKD and the clinical and ethical challenges of predictive medicine.

Abstract

Progress in human genetics allows for information on severe human disorders such as Cystic Fibrosis, Huntington's chorea, Duchenne's disease, and ADPKD.As only limited therapeutic and preventive measures are available in most cases, genetic information calls for developing carrier ethics, including health risk competence and a redefinition of the concept of responsible parenthood.Pre-implementation diagnosis and early abortion, wherever clinically available and ethically acceptable, will become an instrument of new reproductive ethics. Human ADPKD disorder will be used as an exemplary case study for the impact of the Human Genome Project on medical ethics and carrier ethics in a transcultural perspective.