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AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Oct 27, 2005
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December 2005, Vol 95, No. 12 | American Journal of Public Health 2139-2143
© 2005 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.066878

HEALTH POLICY AND ETHICS

Genomics and the Public Health Code of Ethics

James C. Thomas, PhD, MPH, Debra E. Irwin, PhD, Erin Shaugnessy Zuiker, MPH and Robert C. Millikan, PhD, MPH, DVM

James C. Thomas, Debra E. Irwin, and Robert C. Millikan are with the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. At the time of writing, Erin Shaugnessy Zuiker was with the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to James Thomas, PhD, MPH, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 2799-7435 (e-mail: jim.thomas{at}unc.edu).

We consider the public health applications of genomic technologies as viewed through the lens of the public health code of ethics. We note, for example, the potential for genomics to increase our appreciation for the public health value of interdependence, the potential for some genomic tools to exacerbate health disparities because of their inaccessibility by the poor and the way in which genomics forces public health to refine its notions of prevention.

The public health code of ethics sheds light on concerns raised by commercial genomic products that are not discussed in detail by more clinically oriented perspectives. In addition, the concerns raised by genomics highlight areas of our understanding of the ethical principles of public health in which further refinement may be necessary.




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