Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr;21(4):57-66.
doi: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1851813. Epub 2020 Dec 16.

Obligations of the "Gift": Reciprocity and Responsibility in Precision Medicine

Sandra Soo-Jin Lee  1
Affiliations

Obligations of the "Gift": Reciprocity and Responsibility in Precision Medicine

Sandra Soo-Jin Lee. Am J Bioeth. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Precision medicine relies on data and biospecimens from participants who willingly offer their personal information on the promise that this act will ultimately result in knowledge that will improve human health. Drawing on anthropological framings of the "gift," this paper contextualizes participation in precision medicine as inextricable from social relationships and their ongoing ethical obligations. Going beyond altruism, reframing biospecimen and data collection in terms of socially regulated gift-giving recovers questions of responsibility and care. As opposed to conceiving participation in terms of donations that elide clinical labor critical to precision medicine, the gift metaphor underscores ethical commitments to reciprocity and responsibility. This demands confronting inequities in precision medicine, such as systemic bias and lack of affordability and access. A focus on justice in precision medicine that recognizes the sociality of the gift is a critical frontier for bioethics.

Keywords: Anthropology; genetic research; human subjects research; race and culture/ethnicity; research ethics; social science research.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Almeling Rene. 2011. Sex cells: The medical market for eggs and sperm. Univ of California Press.
    1. Angrist Misha. 2011. “You never call, you never write: why return of ‘omic’results to research participants is both a good idea and a moral imperative.” Personalized medicine 8 (6): 651–657. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benjamin Ruha. 2016. “Informed refusal: Toward a justice-based bioethics.” Science, Technology, & Human Values 41 (6): 967–990.
    1. Berger Fred R. 1975. “Gratitude.” Ethics 85 (4): 298–309.
    1. Boyd Danah, and Crawford Kate. 2011. “Six provocations for big data.” A decade in internet time: Symposium on the dynamics of the internet and society.

Publication types