Abstract

The validity of a right not to know personal genetic information has been both questioned and defended on the basis of two different understandings of «personal autonomy». I'll try to show that a proposal to ground this right on a notion of «privacy» is, morally speaking, successful but, if correctly integrated with a reference to personal identity, it's complementary (and not really alternative) to a «thick» view of personal autonomy. An identity-based approach can also shed a different light on the nature and limits of a moral duty to communicate genetic information to family members.