In the years following FDA approval of direct-to-consumer, genetic-health-risk/DTCGHR testing, millions of people in the US have sent their DNA to companies to receive personal genome health risk information without physician or other learned medical professional involvement. In Personal Genome Medicine, Michael J. Malinowski examines the ethical, legal, and social implications of this development. Drawing from the past and present of medicine in the US, Malinowski applies law, policy, public and private sector practices, and governing norms to analyze the commercial personal genome sequencing and testing sectors and to assess their impact on the future of US medicine. Written in relatable and accessible language, the book also proposes regulatory reforms for government and medical professionals that will enable technological advancements while maintaining personal and public health standards.

Informed consent has been a mainstay of all ethical research guidelines since the 1970s, but the proliferation of field experiments in the social sciences – which include audit experiments, correspondence experiments, canvasing experiments, social media experiments, and information experiments – has brought with it an increasing resistance to procuring informed consent. This essay grapples with the now common practice of denying research subjects an opportunity to voluntarily consent to participate in research. It provides a framework for thinking about virtual consent, a situation in which the researcher consents for participants. Drawing on a Rawlsian thought experiment, I argue that ethical research is that to which a reasonable person, not knowing whether she would be the subject or the scientist, would consent. This type of reasoning provides a way for thinking about potential downstream consequences not just for the individual subject, but also for society writ large. Yet, because virtual consent does not entail voluntary participation, in constitutes a bronze standard, rather than a best practice, for ethics in experiments.

This chapter surveys guidelines for ethical use of human and nonhuman animals in scientific research.