Ethical Considerations for the Universal Genetic Testing of Cancer Patients
Thursday, October 12, 2023
8:15 AM – 9:30 AM ET
Location: Essex C (Fourth Floor)
With a greater appreciation of the genome’s role in cancer formation and proliferation, support has grown for initiatives to provide genomic screening for all cancer patients. The question remains if and how institutions should adopt universal testing policies. While universal access to diagnostic testing has many potential benefits, the implementation of these initiatives raises tough ethical questions for institutions, and little has been written to guide leadership as they consider these policies. This presentation will outline a paper that first aims to understand the various arguments used to support universal genomic screening initiatives, and second aims to provide a framework for addressing the questions about the creation and implementation of these policies, including which ethical principles should be used to determine which patients and cancer types are eligible for genomic screening, institutional responsibilities for following up with patients as new knowledge is gained, responsibilities to address inequity, and institutional roles in promoting testing for those who are initially hesitant. This presentation will offer ethical principles that outline institutional responsibilities to patients, drawing on the work of Ruth Faden, to provide institutional leadership with the tools to critically analyze the ethical considerations of proposed initiatives, to examine the moral responsibilities that institutions have to the communities they support, and to reframe the possible implications of these policies. This presentation will propose a novel approach for institutional leadership to weigh the ethical impact of their campaigns, and to help guide institutional policy decisions on the integration of novel genomic technologies into care.
Richard Sharp – Biomedical Ethics Research Program – Mayo Clinic