Religious Perspectives on Precision Medicine in Singapore

Asian Bioeth Rev. 2021 Sep 6;13(4):473-483. doi: 10.1007/s41649-021-00180-4. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Precision medicine (PM) aims to revolutionise healthcare, but little is known about the role religion and spirituality might play in the ethical discourse about PM. This Perspective reports the outcomes of a knowledge exchange fora with religious authorities in Singapore about data sharing for PM. While the exchange did not identify any foundational religious objections to PM, ethical concerns were raised about the possibility for private industry to profiteer from social resources and the potential for genetic discrimination by private health insurers. According to religious authorities in Singapore, sharing PM data with private industry will require a clear public benefit and robust data governance that incorporates principles of transparency, accountability and oversight.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41649-021-00180-4.

Keywords: Genomics; Health data sharing; Health equity; Precision medicine; Private sector; Religious views.