Am I My Cousin's Keeper? A Proposal to Protect Relatives of Genetic Database Subjects
Robert I. Field, Anthony W. Orlando, Arnold J. Rosoff · Indiana Health Law Review · 2021
We live in a brave new world full of exciting possibilities for medical and human advancement.Mapping of the genome has taken our ability to understand individual humans to a substantially more detailed and intimate level than has ever before been possible.At the same time, advances in computer science, artificial intelligence, and the universality of internet connectedness have ushered in the era of "big data" and enabled us to examine and understand as never before what all of us have in common and what makes each of us unique. 1 By aggregating data from and about large numbers of people and getting a broader view of the human collective, we can understand better and in greater detail what makes for the best health and health care of an individual human, especially when we can take it down to the intimate genetic level.These advances have spawned the era of "precision medicine," in which we can diagnose and treat human conditions and ailments with much greater effectiveness.It is a time of great possibilities but also of great perils, particularly as regards the confidentiality of each individual's medical status and human