Genetic counseling is a biomedical practice that appeared in the United States in the 1940s and spread elsewhere in the world with the popularization of genetic information and the new genetics in public health. A genetic counseling session aims to inform and orient individuals on their genetic tests, presenting notions of probabilities, risks, and genetic diseases. Thus, this biomedical practice combines health care, social assistance, and education. This paper describes the emergence and development of genetic counseling and discusses some of its ethical challenges.
Genetic counseling; Genetic; Ethics; Huntington disease; Bioethics