Prof. Wolf Quoted in Boston Globe on New Genetics Recommendations

Professor Susan Wolf was quoted in two Boston Globe articles on issues raised by new recommendations from a working group of the American College of Human Genetics and Genomics. These long-awaited recommendations urge labs and clinicians to inform patients when clinical genome or exome sequencing identifies any of two dozen pathogenic incidental findings, even when the patient does not wish to receive these findings or is a child. Wolf points out serious concerns, noting that the guidelines "go very far in privileging the concerns of the lab and the concerns of the clinician over the rights of individual patients, and the rights of kids to be protected from certain information" before they achieve the age of majority and can decide themselves whether to be tested. "I'm troubled by [the guidelines] going that far in demoting these core concerns of [patient] autonomy..." Wolf has led multiple projects on return of results and incidental findings, funded by NIH and now the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

To read the March 21 article, click here.
To read the March 22 article, click here.