Since the start of the Human Genome Project, bioethicists and geneticists have speculated that genetic information can have large impacts on how people understand what they—and other people—are responsible for or responsible to do. This conference

1. reflects on the many, complicated ways in which the term responsibility is used;
2. considers two specific contexts in which genetic information can impact perceptions of responsibility; and
3. steps back and examines the extent to which the initial speculation about large impacts has been borne out by the evidence.

This symposium is sponsored by the Center for Research on Ethical, Legal & Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic & Behavioral Genetics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute, in collaboration with The Hastings Center. (Originally aired May 28, 2021 from 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Eastern Time)

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Introduction and Overview
Introduction: Erik Parens, The Hastings Center

Overview of the “responsibilities” encountered by the Columbia-Hastings Center for Research on Ethical, Legal & Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic & Behavioral Genetics

Paul Appelbaum, Columbia University

Session 1. An overview of the concept of “genetic responsibility.”
Presenter: Silke Schicktanz, University of Göttingen
Discussant: Lisa S. Parker, University of Pittsburgh

Session 2. Impacts on patients and their sense of responsibility associated with receiving genetic information about psychiatric diseases.
Presenter: Woo-Kyoung Ahn, Yale University

Session 3. Impacts on prospective parents and their sense of responsibility associated with receiving genetic information about their fetuses. 
Presenter: Stina Lou, Aarhus University
Discussant: Kimberly Mutcherson, Rutgers University

Session 4 and Wrap-up

Session 4. How do the impacts on notions of responsibility that have been found measure up to the original concerns about geneticization?
Presenter: Paul Martin, University of Sheffield
Discussant: Carlos Novas, Carleton University

Wrap-up questions and comments from the audience.  

Facilitated by Kathryn Tabb