Balancing the “confidentiality duty” towards a deceased’s genetic information with the relatives’ right to health: A useful comparison between italian and dutch regulatory framework

Access to a deceased individual’s genetic information and the relevant disclosure are currently critical matters from a scientific viewpoint as well as for ethical and legal reasons. In such circumstances, the right to confidentiality of the deceased and the right of third parties to access genetic information need to be balanced, in order to provide a concrete assessment of which of the rights at stake deserves protection, and to what extent. The Authors intend to outline Italy’s state of the art, identifying the uncertainties and criticalities shared with the situation in the Netherlands and encourage effective actions aimed at regulating possible family disputes. The authors particularly aim to illustrate emerging rules in the management of access to genetic information for diagnostic and/or predictive purposes.