The Genethics Forum
The Genethics Forum was established in 2001 as a national forum for the discussion of practical ethical issues arising in the clinical and research uses of genetics and genomics. The Forum is primarily aimed providing genetics professionals - including nurses, counsellors, doctors, laboratory staff, and medical researchers – an opportunity to present and discuss difficult ethical issues and to share good practice. The Forum meets three times a year (47 times as of 2017) and has been very popular with health professionals and researchers. More than 1000 different genetics professionals (including members of every clinical genetics service and NHS laboratory in the United Kingdom) have attended the Forum. Meetings primarily consist of short presentations by health professionals of on-going ‘cases’ that they consider to present ethical issues. These case presentations are followed by open discussion facilitated by an ethicist and a geneticist. Since it began, the Genethics Forum has seen more than 500 case presentations. The Forum (formerly known as the Genethics Club) is organised by Tara Clancy, Angus Clarke, Anneke Lucassen and Michael Parker. In addition to its role as an ethics forum, the Genethics Forum also acts as a catalyst for research ideas, papers and books including Michael Parker’s “Ethical Problems and Genetics Practice” published in 2012 by Cambridge University Press.