ATTITUDES TOWARDS GENETIC TESTING: ANALYSIS OF CONTRADICTIONS P. JALLINOJA, 1,6 * A. HAKONEN, 1 A. R. ARO, 1 P. NIEMELA È , 5 M. HIETALA, 4 J. LO È NNQVIST, 2 L. PELTONEN 3 and P. AULA 4 1 National Public Health Institute, Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion, Helsinki, Finland, 2 National Public Health Institute, Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Research, Helsinki, Finland, 3 National Public Health Institute, Department of Molecular Biology, Helsinki, Finland, 4 Department of Medical Genetics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland, 5 Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland and 6 Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland AbstractÐA survey study was conducted among 1169 people to evaluate attitudes towards genetic test- ing in Finland. Here we present an analysis of the contradictions detected in people's attitudes towards genetic testing. This analysis focuses on the approval of genetic testing as an individual choice and on the con®dence in control of the process of genetic testing and its implications. Our analysis indicated that some of the respondents have contradictory attitudes towards genetic testing. It is proposed that contradictory attitudes towards genetic testing should be given greater signi®cance both in scienti®c stu- dies on attitudes towards genetic testing as well as in the health care context, e.g. in genetic counselling. # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Key wordsÐgenetic testing, attitude, modernity INTRODUCTION One of the major arguments in favour of the advancement and support of molecular genetics and its medical applications is that they promise to improve the quality of life of individuals and families (Haq, 1993; Homan, 1994). Health is gen- erally regarded as one of the basic values of our time (Crawford, 1980, 1984; Lupton, 1995; Beck- Gernsheim, 1996) and therefore the health-promot- ing nature of gene technology has had a special appeal. However, the rapid development of gene technol- ogy has also given rise to some critical questions and even outright opposition. It has been claimed for instance, that genetic testing confronts people with new moral and legal problems that cannot be resolved by reference to existing ethical and legal norms (Natowicz and Alper, 1991; Stewart, 1991). Several studies suggest that there is widespread support for genetic testing (Table 1). Depending on the disease under study and on how the question is put from 47% to 100% of the respondents approve of genetic testing. Fewer respondents do not approve of genetic testing, the ®gures ranging from 0% to 32%. Some of these studies also suggest that there may be a coexistence of approving and disapproving attitudes. Luja n and Moreno (1994) state that Spaniards clearly favour gene research, e.g. for diagnostic purposes, while they question its appli- cation from an ethical point of view. Furu et al. (1993) report that up to 21% of the respondents stated that gene tests are partly a good and partly a bad thing. Singer (1993) describes the attitudes towards genetic testing as not yet crystallized. On the basis of these study ®ndings, we can hy- pothesize that those supporting and those opposing genetic testing may not be groups made up of totally dierent people. Contradictory attitudes towards medicine have been reported even in leading medical journals. For example, one editorial of Lancet claims that patients tell physicians they do not believe in tablets, but they simultaneously demand more rather than less treatment (Who owns medical tech- nology, 1995). The editorial classi®es the phenom- enon as ambivalence. Several case studies on controversies involving modern technologies have detected controversies in people's attitudes towards medical and other tech- nologies (Nelkin, 1992). There are interest groups and organizations that unconditionally oppose, and others that completely support, e.g. fetal research (Maynard-Moody, 1992), animal research (Nelkin and Jasper, 1992) or nuclear energy (Jasper, 1992), while among the general population, ambivalence often characterizes attitudes towards these technol- ogies (Nelkin, 1992). In their review of studies on attitudes towards modern technologies, Amitai Etzioni and Clyde Nunn also came to the con- clusion that ambivalence and diversity charcterize Soc. Sci. Med. Vol. 46, No. 10, pp. 1367±1374, 1998 # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0277-9536/98 $19.00 + 0.00 PII: S0277-9536(98)00017-3 *Author for correspondence. 1367