Dealing with complex matters: the political regulation of genetic testing and genetic counseling in Austria, Germany and Japan

The three OECD countries Austria, Germany and Japan in the 1990s and 2000s had to react to the increased application of genetic testing. The paper describes and analyses the regulatory efforts of the three countries that at first sight look very different from each other, Austria featuring a law on genetic testing, Germany finally regulating the matter by law after a long series of failed attempts to do so and Japan being content with self-regulation by medical professionals. Yet upon closer inspection a number of similarities become visible between the three democracies’ efforts to come to terms with the challenges of dealing with a matter as knowledge-intensive and complex as genetic testing and counseling. (author's abstract)