Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests, Government Oversight, and the First Amendment: What the Government Can (and Can't) Do to Protect the Public's Health

Publication Date: January 2004

Publisher:

Author(s): Gail H. Javitt; Erica Stanley

Research Area: Health; Law and ethics

Keywords: Genetic testing; Direct-to-consumer

Type: Other

Abstract:

The number and type of genetic tests available continues to increase, and such tests are playing an increasingly important role in health care. These tests provide information regarding a person's current or potential future health status -- information with significant consequences for both individuals and their family members.

Many critics lament both the lack of federal oversight of genetic tests and the increasing efforts by some companies to promote and sell them directly to consumers. Yet there has been little careful analysis of either the regulatory environment in which these tests are provided, or the constitutional constraints implicated when the government restricts commercial communications.

In Oklahoma Law Review 57:2, Summer 2004, p.251-302.