Genomic Messages: How the Evolving Science of Genetics Affects Our Health, Families, and Future

Two leaders in the field of genetics—a bioethicist-health lawyer and an obstetrician-gynecologist geneticist—answer the most pressing questions about the application of new genetics to our universal medicine and what personalized medicine means for individual healthcare.

Breakthroughs in genetic research are changing modern medicine and pharmaceuticals. But what are these changes and how do they affect our individual care? Genomic Messages examines these groundbreaking changes and the questions they raise: What kind of specific medical innovation do we have to look forward to now and tomorrow? How will this “flood” of genetic messages change our lives, our interaction with our physicians and our healthcare system?

Groundbreaking and provocative, Genomic Messages fuses the often conflicting worlds of medicine and law to provide information and insight that will impact the health choices of every one of us, from how medicine is practiced to concepts of privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent. Ultimately, it reveals how genetic information is changing how we think about ourselves, our health, and our future.

George Annas, J.D., M.P.H., is Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University, chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health, and professor in the Boston University School of Medicine and School of Law. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is cofounder of Global Lawyers and Physicians, and his research has focused on the rights of patients and the regulation of research on human subjects.

Sherman Elias, M.D., was professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecol-ogy and clinical genetics, and the retired chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Elias served as president of the Society of Gynecologic Investigation, director of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and vice president for clinical practice of the American College of Medical Genetics. He chaired both the ethics and genetics committees of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. His research focused on reproductive genetics, including prenatal diagnosis using fetal cells and nucleic acids from maternal blood.