Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Personalized Medicine in a New Genomic Era: Ethical and Legal Aspects

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:
Science and Engineering Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The genome of two completely unrelated individuals is quite similar apart from minor variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms which contribute to the uniqueness of each and every person. These single nucleotide polymorphisms are of great interest clinically as they are useful in figuring out the susceptibility of certain individuals to particular diseases and for recognizing varied responses to pharmacological interventions. This gives rise to the idea of ‘personalized medicine’ as an exciting new therapeutic science in this genomic era. Personalized medicine suggests a unique treatment strategy based on an individual’s genetic make-up. Its key principles revolve around applied pharmaco-genomics, pharmaco-kinetics and pharmaco-proteomics. Herein, the ethical and legal aspects of personalized medicine in a new genomic era are briefly addressed. The ultimate goal is to comprehensively recognize all relevant forms of genetic variation in each individual and be able to interpret this information in a clinically meaningful manner within the ambit of ethical and legal considerations. The authors of this article firmly believe that personalized medicine has the potential to revolutionize the current landscape of medicine as it makes its way into clinical practice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abrahams, E., Ginsburg, G. S., & Silver, M. (2005). The personalized medicine coalition: goals and strategies. American Journal of Pharmacogenomics, 5, 345–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal, S., & Khan, F. (2007). Human genetic variation and personalized medicine. Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 51, 7–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budin-Ljøsne, I., & Harris, J. R. (2016). Patient and interest organizations’ views on personalized medicine: a qualitative study. BMC Medical Ethics, 17, 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clift, K. E., Halverson, C. M., Fiksdal, A. S., Kumbamu, A., Sharp, R. R., & McCormick, J. B. (2015). Patients’ views on incidental findings from clinical exome sequencing. Applied and Translational Genomics, 4, 38–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clifton, J. M., VanBeuge, S. S., Mladenka, C., & Wosnik, K. K. (2010). The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act 2008: what clinicians should understand. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 22, 246–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fact sheet (2015). President Obama’s precision medicine initiative. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/30/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-precision-medicine-initiative. Accessed on 7 July 2016.

  • Ginsburg, G. S., & McCarthy, J. J. (2001). Personalized medicine: revolutionizing drug discovery and patient care. Trends in Biotechnology, 19, 491–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guttmacher, A. E., & Collins, F. S. (2003). Welcome to the genomic era. New England Journal of Medical, 349, 996–998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamburg, M. A., & Collins, F. S. (2010). The path to personalized medicine. New England Journal of Medicine, 363, 301–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong, K. W., & Oh, B. (2010). Overview of personalized medicine in the disease genomic era. BMB Reports, 43, 643–648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, D. J., Khoury, M. J., & Drazen, J. M. (2008). Letting the genome out of the bottle: Will we get our wish? New England Journal of Medicine, 358, 105–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jain, K. K. (2002). Personalized medicine. Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics, 4, 548–558.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jain, K. K. (2004). Role of pharmacoproteomics in the development of personalized medicine. Pharmacogenomics, 5, 331–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, S. S., & Mudaliar, A. (2009). Medicine—racing forward: The Genomics and Personalized Medicine Act. Science, 323, 342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longo, D. L. (2012). Tumor heterogeneity and personalized medicine. New England Journal of Medicine, 366, 956–957.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy, P. J., Jain, R., Paik, Y. K., Downey, R., Ptolemy, A. S., et al. (2011). Personalized medicine in the age of pharmacoproteomics: a close up on India and need for social science engagement for responsible innovation in post-proteomic biology. Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine, 9, 67–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Genetic Information and Nondiscrimination Act (2008). http://www.genome.gov/Pages/PolicyEthics/GeneticDiscrimination/GINAInfoDoc.pdf. Assessed on 6 March 2016.

  • Weston, A. D., & Hood, L. (2004). Systems biology, proteomics, and the future of health care: toward predictive, preventative, and personalized medicine. Journal of Proteome Research, 3, 179–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan

    Maria Shoaib, Mansoor Ali Merchant Rameez & Syed Ather Hussain

  2. Forensic Medicine Division, Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, King Fahd Hospital of the University, University of Dammam, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Mohammed Madadin & Ritesh G. Menezes

  3. Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Melbourne, Australia

    Mohammed Madadin

  4. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Mohammed Madadin

Authors
  1. Maria Shoaib
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mansoor Ali Merchant Rameez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Syed Ather Hussain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mohammed Madadin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ritesh G. Menezes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ritesh G. Menezes.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

All the authors have no financial or non-financial competing interests.

Funding

No specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors was received.

Ethical Approval

Not applicable.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shoaib, M., Rameez, M.A.M., Hussain, S.A. et al. Personalized Medicine in a New Genomic Era: Ethical and Legal Aspects. Sci Eng Ethics 23, 1207–1212 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9828-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9828-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation