Main description:

Hippocrates famously advised doctors 'it is far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has'. Yet 2,500 years later, 'personalised medicine', based on individual genetic profiling and the achievements of genomic research, claims to be revolutionary. In this book, experts from a wide range of disciplines critically examine this claim. They expand the discussion of personalised medicine beyond its usual scope to include many other highly topical issues, including: human nuclear genome transfer ('three-parent IVF'), stem cell-derived gametes, private umbilical cord blood banking, international trade in human organs, biobanks such as the US Precision Medicine Initiative, direct-to-consumer genetic testing, health and fitness self-monitoring. Although these technologies often prioritise individual choice, the original ideal of genomic research saw the human genome as 'the common heritage of humanity'. The authors question whether personalised medicine actually threatens this conception of the common good.

Contents:

1. Introduction to Personalised Medicine, Individual Choice and the Common Good Donna Dickenson, Britta van Beers and Sigrid Sterckx; 2. Personalised medicine and the politics of human nuclear genome transfer Francoise Baylis and Alana Cattapan; 3. Stem cell derived gametes and uterus transplants: hurray for the end of third party reproduction! Or not? Heidi Mertes; 4. Personalising future health risk through 'biological insurance': proliferation of private umbilical cord blood banking in India Jyotsna Gupta; 5. Combating the trade in organs: why we should preserve the communal nature of organ transplantation Kristof Van Assche; 6. When there is no cure: challenges for collective approaches to Alzheimer's disease Robin Pierce; 7. Lost and found: relocating the individual in the age of intensified data sourcing in European healthcare Klaus Hoeyer; 8. Presuming the promotion of the common good by large-scale health research: the cases of care.data 2.0 and the 100,000 Genomes Project in the UK Sigrid Sterckx, Sandi Dheensa and Julian Cockbain; 9. My genome, my right Stuart Hogarth, Julian Cockbain and Sigrid Sterckx; 10. 'The best me I can possibly be': legal subjectivity, self-authorship and wrongful life actions in an age of 'genomic torts' Britta van Beers; 11. I run, you run, we run: a philosophical approach to health and fitness apps Marli Huijer and Christian Detweiler; 12. The molecularised me: psychoanalysing personalised medicine and self-tracking Hub Zwart.