Legal problems related to transfer of genetic information in the case law: medical and research spheres
The subject of this article is the analysis of mainly foreign case law on the transfer of genetic information in the spheres of medicine and scientific research.. The author addresses the positions of courts on private issues such as: the responsibility of attending physician and third parties to inform relatives of a patient about the risks of genetic diseases, rights of relatives to access genetic information after a patient has died, acquisition of a voluntary informed consent for participating in research. Comparison is conducted on approaches of the courts in other regions and countries in reviewing similar cases. The novelty of the research lies in the choice of the topic and obtained conclusions. The author analyzes foreign case law on the transfer of genetic information in the medical and research spheres, which has not previously been a subject of separate study in the Russian literature. The conclusion is formulated on the absence of universal position of the courts on the question of understanding the content of genetic information, limits of the rights of relatives to receive genetic information of a patient. The courts are unanimous in their decisions (or the cases are isolated) on the matter that participation in genetic research must be preceded by a voluntary informed consent, which can be presumed and applies exclusively to the research agreed to. The participants do not have rights to results of the research, and the discovered genes cannot be patented by the researchers.