PROGRESS Center

Ethical, Social, and Legal Implications - Impact of Genetic Risk Information on Parents

Mother walking hand in hand with her young son enjoying a moment of family togetherness in a park at sunset.

Our study identifies infants at risk of developmental and learning differences based on genetic information. Parents receive this genetic information during the first few months of their newborn’s life. This information can allow families to seek early interventions for their child, but may also affect the family in other ways. Our goal, using both surveys and interviews, is to understand both positive and negative impacts that receiving this information has on parents and how it affects their well-being.

Project Leads

  • Paul Appelbaum, MD

    • Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, & Law
    • Ethical, Social, and Legal Implications - Lead

    Dr. Appelbaum’s recent research has focused on the ethical, legal and psychosocial impacts of the introduction of new technologies, such as genome sequencing, into medical research and treatment. He was previously the A.F. Zeleznik Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Appelbaum is Past President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and has twice served as Chair of the Council on Psychiatry and Law and of the Committee on Judicial Action of the APA. Dr. Appelbaum serves on the Standing Committee on Ethics of the World Psychiatric Association, and served for 10 years as Chair of the DSM Steering Committee for APA. He has received the APA’s Adolf Meyer Award for lifetime achievement in psychiatric research, was the Fritz Redlich Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

  • Matthew Lebowitz, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry)
    • Ethical, Social, and Legal Implications - Co-Lead

    Dr. Lebowitz is a psychologist who studies how people think about the causes of behavior and health outcomes, and how this causal thinking shapes attitudes, beliefs, and expectations. He is particularly interested in the implications of using genetics and other aspects of biology to explain why people behave the way they do or develop certain mental and physical health conditions.