Genethics Club: archives

The Genethics Club was formed in November 2001 to provide a forum for discussion of practical ethical problems encountered by people working in genetics. The Club aims to assist health professionals in developing appropriate skills to identify and resolve ethical issues, and ensure that ethical considerations inform the day to day practice of their units.

Some of the issues discussed at previous meetings include:

Adoption

Non-paternity

The relationship between clinical practice and research

Confidentiality

Health professionals’ responsibilities to family members

Testing of children and adolescents

Prenatal testing and reproductive choice

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis

Human Tissue Act 2004

The right not to know

More information can be found on the Genethics Club website

The collection consists of minutes and associated papers for each meeting of the Genethics Club, 2001-2008; Michael Parker's papers relating to the cases discussed in the meetings and papers relating to his book Ethical Problems and Genetics Practice (published early 2012), c.2008-2011; newsletter of the British Society for Human Genetics, Nos 20-41, 2002-2009; publication created by the Human Genetics Commission Making Babies: reproductive decisions and genetic technologies; 3 audio digital objects labelled 'Genethics Club' relating to the July 2006 meeting.

2001-2011

5 archive boxes and 3 digital items

The files have been arranged in order to best reflect how they were created and used. They are arranged by section as follows:

A - Genethics Club meetings
B - Michael Parker book Ethical Problems and Genetics Practice

Donated by Michael Parker, September 2011.

The Club was coordinated by Michael Parker, Angus Clarke, Anneke Lucassen, Fiona Douglas and Tara Clancy and was formally adopted by the British Society for Genetic Medicine (formally the British Society for Human Genetics) and features in several editions of the society's newsletters. The meetings consisted of presentations by a range of professionals practicing clinical genetics who provided case studies which was followed by an open discussion. The meetings were attended by between 25-65 people and were held approximately three times a year. Michael Parker usually chaired the sessions.

The Club was formed after the Wellcome Trust sponsored a symposium at St George's College, University of Oxford, on "ethical issues in clinical genetics". It was suggested that regular meetings should be organised to continue discussing the ethical issues that occur in daily practice.

This collection has been catalogued and is available to library members. Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records.