Use of ES/WGS in both research and clinical settings raises a myriad of ethical, social and legal issues to consider, though most discussions to date have focused on what results should be returned in a clinical setting [Berg et al., 2011; Evans and Rothschild 2012; Green et al., 2012], whether results should be returned at all in a research setting and if so which results [Bredenoord et al., 2011; Fabsitz et al., 2010; Knoppers et al., 2006; Wolf et al., 2012], and what to do about “incidental” – or more appropriately, “secondary” – findings in either setting [Christenhusz et al., 2012; Haga et al., 2012; Kohane et al., 2012; Richardson and Cho 2012; Wolf et al., 2012]. Accordingly, policy makers and professional societies are attempting to develop guidelines for the return of ES/WGS results and attend to concomitant ethical concerns [American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, 2012; Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, 2012].
