Policymakers and program developers should begin grappling with the ethical challenges that come with knowledge of how genetic differences between individuals may affect response to publicly financed interventions. Medical science is involved in ongoing debate over ethical means of incorporating genetic information into screening and treatment decisions (Evans, Skrzynia, & Burke, 2001; Berg, Khoury, & Evans, 2011; Dancey et al., 2012; Goldenberg & Sharp, 2012). Our tentative evidence that common genetic variation may affect response to an intervention like Fast Track suggests that this same debate should be going on in the social and behavioral sciences as well. To be clear, findings from our study in particular and from behavioral genetics in general are not ready for “prime time.” But that may not always be the case. If we are eventually able to predict which children will respond to an intervention on the basis of their DNA (and this is not guaranteed), there are reasons we may not wish to use this information to restrict access to the intervention. It would be helpful to begin a conversation about such decisions now, in order that social policy may evolve with the technology rather than in response to it.
