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Genetics and the Law

This chapter discusses how the legal and ethical aspects of gene technology are both a national concern for European states and a European concern addressed by both the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU). The CoE has been engaged in bioethical issues since the beginning of the 1980s and has adopted a number of recommendations and resolutions concerned with developments in biomedical science and technologies. Most notable is the adoption of the CoE Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention) in 1997, which focuses on a number of selected human rights aspects of developments in biomedicine. The Convention includes a number of general legal principles applying to medical interventions on human beings, including informed consent and the right to privacy. The chapter then assesses informed consent and genetic counselling, as well as specific issues related to genetic testing of adults, children, fetuses, and embryos. It also considers genetic research, direct-to-consumer genetic testing, genetic discrimination, gene therapy, and the protection of genetic information.