TY - JOUR T1 - Genetics, Big Brother and the GP JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 167 LP - 168 VL - 56 IS - 524 AU - Tom Shakespeare Y1 - 2006/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/524/167.abstract N2 - The imperative to promote primary care involvement with genetics is a familiar story.1,2 If new and more scientific understandings of disease and risk are to be the expected legacy of the Human Genome Project, and if the genetic revolution is transforming medicine in the way that some commentators have claimed, then it will be because genetics has changed both its location — from specialist centres to neighbourhood surgeries — and its focus — from rare single gene conditions to common disease. The 2003 White Paper, Our Inheritance, Our Future3 is the latest high profile attempt to promote and realise this vision.High expectation of imminent clinical benefit from genetic research is almost certainly misplaced. Despite considerable hyperbole emerging from media and researchers, applications of stem cell research and gene therapy may take another decade to become available. The hope of a new wave of rationally designed pharmaceuticals may also be over-optimistic.4 Eye-catching ideas — such as ‘genetic print-outs at birth’ for every child — may be as ethically dubious as they are practically unfeasible.5 Personalised medicine provides wonderful … ER -