Abstract

One of the signs of the rapid development of medical genetics is a gradual increase in the number of genetic tests available. Different aspects of this phenomenon have been addressed and debated in the source literature, but so far relatively little has been said about the obligation to provide equal access – in the social context – to selected kinds of tests. In this article, I attempt to reconstruct those few suggestions, dealing with the principles of funding genetic tests from public resources, that can still be found in the source literature. Accordingly, I have analyzed the possibilities of identifying the criteria of selecting diagnostic and preventive tests to be eligible for refund, as well as of screening programmes