Legislation of direct-to-consumer genetic testing in Europe: a fragmented regulatory landscape

Despite the increasing availability of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing, it is currently unclear how such services are regulated in Europe, due to the lack of EU or national legislation specifically addressing this issue. In this article, we provide an overview of laws that could potentially impact the regulation of DTC genetic testing in 26 European countries, namely Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Emphasis is placed on provisions relating to medical supervision, genetic counselling and informed consent. Our results indicate that currently there is a wide spectrum of laws regarding genetic testing in Europe. There are countries (e.g. France and Germany) which essentially ban DTC genetic testing, while in others (e.g. Luxembourg and Poland) DTC genetic testing may only be restricted by general laws, usually regarding health care services and patients’ rights

Las agresiones a profesionales sanitarios en el contexto clínico-asistencial. Fenomenología, estudio de prevalencia, medidas preventivas y tratamiento legal

El presente trabajo de investigación titulado «Las agresiones a profesionales sanitarios en el contexto clínico-asistencial. Fenomenología, estudio de prevalencia, medidas preventivas y tratamiento legal» pretende abordar una problemática ínsita en la esfera de la Medicina (debido al carácter de profesionales sanitarios de los sujetos pasivos de dichas acciones) pero cuyas consecuencias se extienden a otras disciplinas científicas, dada la magnitud social y las funestas consecuencias que las referidas agresiones implican en términos de adecuado funcionamiento de una función pública esencial. Fundamentalmente este trabajo se centra en la cuestión de las violencias contra profesionales sanitarios provenientes tanto de los pacientes como de su entorno (familiares, contactos próximos, etc.) tratando de ofrecer una respuesta integral a la problemática expuesta..

Regulation of artificial human reproduction and European social regulations

Observing the practical situation of the techniques of assisted procreation in European societies, one is allowed to affirm that these techniques are largely in use in our societies, it did not find resistance among the secular groups of the society. It is not the case of the representatives of the Catholic church, hostile to each intervention on the reproductive mechanisms as being a violation against natural law, the most virulent opposition is linked to intervention on embryos or to each way of reproduction outside of the canonic marriage, considering therefore artificial insemination as immoral and anti-juridical. The opposition between secular and the catholic groups is of unequal intensity in the different European countries, it did not stop the application and the use of these reproductive techniques although it made the adoption difficult of measures in some states, and even in the European Parliament. However, they could not oppose the scientific and medical corporation and their arguments of treatment of diseases and of sterility of men or women. This way to present these reproductive techniques in terms of lowering of suffering of couples not able to reproduce naturally received a full social acceptance and legitimation, acceptation because the origin of these techniques is incontestably scientific and legitimation because the goal is essentially medical.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Legal aspects of genetic databases for international biomedical research: the example of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC).

There is a noticeable lack of international regulation on personal data exchange and management in research. This article sheds light in this area by describing how the International Cancer Genome Consortium is developing policies and procedures to address the ethical and legal issues raised by the international transfer of data and results. These policies and procedures aim, first and most importantly, to safeguard the interests of the research participants and other involved stakeholders and, secondly, to facilitate the sharing of data and results to realize greater benefits from this kind of internationally collaborative genetic research.link_to_subscribed_fulltex