Politician's responsabilities regarding predictive medicine.

Genetics is at the junction of the individual, public health and economy, t hus inducing political choices. Genetics and predictive medicine open the h ope for improvements in both diagnosis and treatments, and even prevention. More or less early prenatal and pre-implantation diagnosis contribute to t he search for dreaded diseases and the decision of whether pregnancy should be pursued or terminated. Assessment of the severity of the disability is one of the hardest problems to solve. What should be the limits of an accep table disability? Procreation is generally considered as a private matter. However, it is tempting for society to consider that a pregnancy terminatio n in the case of disability may decrease health expenditures. In regard to post-natal predictive medicine, the danger of discrimination related to mas sive determination of genetic features in an individual within the scope of employment, insurance, banks, and even schools must be weighed. Furthermor e, through predictive medicine, efficient prevention of numerous diseases i s at the individual's disposal. This permits the attenuation or treatment o f various diseases. Politicians cannot overlook this strictly medical aspec t of predictive medicine. However, they must face economical and utilitaria n pressures. In keeping with solidarity and equality, they cannot ignore tw o concerns, i.e., individual health and consideration for each person. The scientific community is subordinate to political society, not vice versa. I t is up to the politician, in order to prevent man from becoming an instrum ent in the hands of others, whith the objective of an ethic of communicatio n and responsability, to fix acceptable limits for a just society aiming at good life for all its citizens, with the objective of communication ethics and responsability. We must all think of the way to determine the scope of application of predictive medicine. Particularly, care must be taken that all advances in medicine lead to individual accomplishment, but not to excl usion.