Making Responsible Life Plans: Cultural Differences in Lay Attitudes in Germany and Israel Towards Predictive Genetic Testing for Late-Onset Diseases

Abstract

This chapter extends the analysis of medico-legal policies and expert bioethical discourses by adding the dimension of lay moralities, examining the attitudes and arguments of lay people and assessing differences and similarities based on cultural grammars as well as personal experience. Focus groups with lay people (both affected and not affected) were conducted in Germany and Israel in order to study the effect of culture (Germany/Israel) as well as religiosity and the personal experience of susceptibility (being affected or not) on lay perceptions of responsibility for “making life plans” in the context of predictive genetic testing. We also examine how perceptions of risk are articulated within broader cultural scripts of individualism/collectivism, self-determination/relational ethics, and universalistic/particularistic lessons of the Holocaust.