From clinic to congregation: religious communities and genetic medicine.

Abstract

The human genome project is an attempt to identify all the genes on the human chromosomes that determine the biological makeup of every individual. Armed with such knowledge, argues M. Therese Lysaught, doctors will face intense pressure to practice medicine in a way that differs radically from practice at present. Rather than responding to disease, they will attempt to eliminate the biological conditions that create disease in the first place. The church as a community of distinctive moral discourse needs to become familiar with the genome project and its consequences for medicine, so as to be able to make informed and appropriate decisions.