Wednesday 1 May 2019

Genes and Insurance: Ethical, Legal and Economic Issues

Genes and Insurance: Ethical, Legal and Economic Issues By Alasdair Maclean

The authors of this study emphasize the effectiveness of collectively funded public insurances as opposed to genetic information regulation within the private insurance sector. Genetics has provided tools to determine individuals' risk of future disease, which is of key interest for insurance companies in determining insurance premiums; but persons with high enough risk may remain uninsured. For this reason, genetic information has been regulated. But, regulation may not be the solution, according to the authors, and they call for the resumption of social insurance, a key element of the welfare state.

This series of books was founded by Cambridge University Press with Alexander McCall Smith as its first editor in 2003. It focuses on the law’s complex and troubled relationship with medicine across both the developed and the developing world. In the past twenty years, we have seen in many countries increasing resort to the courts by dissatisfied patients and a growing use of the courts to attempt to resolve intractable ethical dilemmas. At the same time, legislatures across the world have struggled to address the questions posed by both the successes and the failures of modern medicine, while international organisations such as the WHO and UNESCO now regularly address issues of medical law.

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