In the years following FDA approval of direct-to-consumer, genetic-health-risk/DTCGHR testing, millions of people in the US have sent their DNA to companies to receive personal genome health risk information without physician or other learned medical professional involvement. In Personal Genome Medicine, Michael J. Malinowski examines the ethical, legal, and social implications of this development. Drawing from the past and present of medicine in the US, Malinowski applies law, policy, public and private sector practices, and governing norms to analyze the commercial personal genome sequencing and testing sectors and to assess their impact on the future of US medicine. Written in relatable and accessible language, the book also proposes regulatory reforms for government and medical professionals that will enable technological advancements while maintaining personal and public health standards.

Some federal legislation is unambiguously incomprehensible, even to the lawmakers sponsoring the bills. Yet this legislation passes through both houses of Congress anyway. Part of the reason involves the benefits of legislative incomprehensibility; if hardly anyone understands what a bill means or how it might work, the bill may actually be able to pass more easily since it is hard to identify substantive flaws. Party leaders who are under pressure to pass some legislation can strongarm rank-and-file members to toe the party line and vote in favor. This chapter identifies the significance of this incomprehensible law problem and closes by offering preliminary suggestions for reform.

Consumer protection law is notoriously imbalanced with respect to the superior ability of sellers to process information as compared to their customers. Yet despite the resulting comprehension asymmetries, the design of consumer contract law and disclosure requirements regularly fail to encourage sellers to communicate meaningfully with the target audience. This chapter explores how consumer protection law tacitly encourages incomprehensibility and proposes reforms which would provide increased incentives for meaningful communication between buyers and sellers.