An Organizational Ethics Framework to Balance Individual Privacy and Population Interests Regarding Genetic Technologies

<p>The American culture holds the right to privacy as one of the most esteemed rights for individuals. As such, the culture adamantly defends the right to privacy to ensure individuals have the opportunity to live freely. In the American healthcare system, the right to privacy is critical for individual autonomy. However, genetic science has pushed this boundary as it emphasizes the interdependency between individual and population health. Genetic technologies for healthcare have been increasing at an exponential rate since the early 2000s. Their implantation into clinical care has been a slower process due to ethical dilemmas. Specifically, ethical dilemmas revolve around the use of individual genetic information for population benefit and future research. Ethical discourse on these dilemmas is typically from either the individual or population health perspective. This dissertation presents a healthcare organization’s perspective of ethical dilemmas when integrating genetic technologies into the organization. Specifically, this dissertation develops an organizational ethics framework to address the tensions between individuals and populations when implementing genetic technologies. The framework integrates three recurring and related ethical concepts in discussions about genetics: consent, conflict, compromise. The proposed framework is intended for organizational use to balance individual privacy and population benefits in both clinical care and research settings.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

One-year Embargo

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Health Care Ethics

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Trani, Christine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gerard Magill
• Henk ten Have
• Joris Gielen

• organizational
• ethics
• genetics
• gene
• individual
• privacy
• population health
• Bioethics and Medical Ethics

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/227

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dsc.duq.edu:etd-1213