Culture, Kinship and Genes

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Angus Clarke

      Pages 1-23

3. Background

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

      PDF

   2. Kinship and Medical Genetics: A Clinician’s Perspective

      • Bernadette Modell

      Pages 27-39

   3. The Work of Culture: An Anthropological Perspective

      • Marilyn Strathern

      Pages 40-53

   4. What is an Ethnic Group? A Biological Perspective

      • Helen Macbeth

      Pages 54-66

   5. What is an Ethnic Group? The View from Social Anthropology

      • Ursula Sharma

      Pages 67-79

4. Genetic Disease in Context

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 81-81

      PDF

   2. Consanguineous Marriage and Genetics: A Positive Relationship

      • Aamra Darr

      Pages 83-96

   3. Factors Associated with Birth Outcome in Bradford Pakistanis

      • Sue Proctor, Iain Smith

      Pages 97-110

   4. The Relevance of Cultural Understanding to Clinical Genetic Practice

      • Nadeem Qureshi

      Pages 111-119

   5. Women’s Experiences of Screening in Pregnancy: Ethnic Differences in the West Midlands

      • Josephine Green, Merry France-Dawson

      Pages 120-132

   6. Coping with the Sickle Cell Gene in Africa

      • Olu Akinyanju

      Pages 133-146

   7. Cultural Influences on the Perception of Genetic Disorders in the Black Population of Southern Africa

      • Jennifer Kromberg, Trefor Jenkins

      Pages 147-157

   8. The Role of Unconscious Fantasy in the Giving and Receiving of Genetic Counselling

      • Gulsan Karbani, Susie Godsil, Robert Mueller

      Pages 158-164

5. Inheritance

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165

      PDF

   2. Everyday Ideas of Inheritance and Health in Britain: Implications for Predictive Genetic Testing

      • Charlie Davison

      Pages 167-174

   3. It Runs in the Family: Lay Knowledge about Inheritance

      • Martin Richards

      Pages 175-194

6. Social and Political Issues

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 195-195

      PDF

   2. ‘Once You Have a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail’

      • Pat Spallone

      Pages 197-205

The first comprehensive attempt to explore the issues raised by genetic counselling across cultures. It will be of interest to health professionals and to students and lecturers in the social, behavioural and political sciences and in genetics, medicine and nursing. The meaning and relevance of kinship and ethnicity in the context of genetic disease, cultural issues that have arisen in practice, including the influence of the lay public's beliefs about inheritance and the wider social and political context of genetics and genetic disease are all explored in depth.

• culture
• genes
• genetics
• pregnancy

'...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

• Department of Medical Genetics, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK

  Angus Clarke

• Department of Nursing Studies, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK

  Evelyn Parsons

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.

Policies and ethics