Genetic tests can already partially predict our future health. But do we want to know which diseases might catch up with us in 30 years' time? What impact will such tests have on our lives, on our society? In the "Ju-Gen-D" project, young people were able to spend a weekend discussing and learning about so-called "predictive" genetic tests in a moderated group discussion, in a school competition or online. The results were published in the IZT-Text series.

HERE IS THE COVER OF THE PUBLICATION (EXCERPT):

Genetic engineering had long since "arrived" in the lives of many people, including young people. A series of articles in the New York Times entitled "The DNA Age", which won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, made this clear by focussing on predictive genetic testing and the consequences for individuals, their families and friends from 2006 to 2008. The series not only promoted rationality and legitimisation of public communication and thus contributed to the formation of opinion and will. It also highlighted the need for guidance in dealing with the opportunities and risks of genetic engineering in general and predictive genetic testing in particular. The following questions, among others, were addressed in personal stories:

  • How do young people plan their future when they have the gene of an incurable disease that will break out in a few years and lead to an early death?
  • How do young women decide if they can eliminate their high genetic risk of developing breast cancer by having a mastectomy, for example, at the cost of high physical and psychological stress?
  • How do family members and friends deal with genetic test results and the consequences for themselves and others?

 

Both the overall social discourse and the individual challenges faced by those affected made this clear: Opportunities and risks must be discussed in predictive genetic testing and require expertise in dealing with uncertainties, complexity and ambiguity. However, these skills - like technology discourses in general - have hardly been anchored in school and extracurricular political education to date.

Against this backdrop, these were the project's objectives,

  • to introduce young people to the discourse on ethical, legal and social issues of modern life sciences using the example of the opportunities and risks of predictive genetic testing,
  • through a Competition contribute to the rationality and legitimisation of public communication and to the formation of opinion and will among young people,
  • To provide competences in dealing with uncertainties, complexity and ambiguity,
  • to ensure that the discourse on predictive genetic tests is included in the repertoire of topics in the media and the Internet finds,
    to develop procedural models, methods and instruments for civic education in and out of school in order to provide orientation knowledge on the relevance and quality characteristics of discourses,

 

to anchor future-oriented reflections on new technologies and their consequences in political education using the topic of "predictive genetic testing" as an example.

 

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