Culture, Kinship and Genes

ANGUS CLARKE is Reader in Clinical Genetics in the Institute of Medical Genetics at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff. He worked in paediatrics for several years and this led him to develop an interest in inherited disorders that affect children. He has studied some of the social and ethical implications of genetic testing, and was chair of the Clinical Genetics Society Working Party on the genetic testing of children. He has edited a book on the ethical and social aspects of genetic counselling Genetic Counselling: Practice and Principles.EVELYN PARSONS, a medical sociologist, is Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing Studies and Research Fellow in the Institute of Medical Genetics at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff. Her publications include papers on the social construction of genetic risk, the psychosocial implications of presymtomatic testing, and the experience of scientists involved in cloning the gene for myotonic dystrophy. Her current research is in newborn screening and familial breast cancer.

• Preface - Acknowledgements - Introduction; A.Clarke - PART 1: BACKGROUND - Kinship and Medical Genetics; B.Modell - The Work of Culture; M.Strathern - What is an Ethnic Group?; H.MacBeth - What is an Ethnic Group; U.Sharma - PART 2: GENETIC DISEASE IN CONTEXT - Consanguineous Marriage and Genetics; A.Darr - Factors associated with Birth Outcome in Bradford Pakistanis; S.Proctor & I.Smith - The Relevance of Cultural Understanding to Clinical Genetic Practice; N.Quereshi - Women's Experiences of Screening in Pregnancy; J.Green & M.France-Dawson - Coping with the Sickle Cell Gene in Africa; O.Akinyanju - Cultural Influences on the Perception of Genetic Disorders in the Black Population of Southern Africa; J.Kromberg & T.Jenkins - The Role of Unconscious Fantasy in the Giving and Receiving of Genetic Counselling; G.Karbani, S.Godsill & B.Mueller - PART 3: INHERITANCE - Everyday Ideas of Inheritance and Health in Britain: Implications for Predictive Genetic Testing; C.Davison - Lay Knowledge about Inheritance; M.Richards - PART 4: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES - 'Once you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail'; P.Spallone - Learning Difficulties and the Guardians of the Gene; C.Goodey - Gamete Donation and the Management of Difference; F.Price - About Genetics; M.Stacey - Culture and Genetics; E.Parsons

'...the book offers a fresh approach and should be welcomed by social scientists, service providers and anyone with a practical interest in the social and cultural implications of genetic counselling.' - Sociology of Health and Illness '...This book...is an exploratory investigation of the role of cultural factors in genetic counselling...The volume will be of interest to clinicians, students and lecturers in both the social and medical sciences, including those who are exploring the links between the culture of science and the science of culture.' - Alison Shaw