Alison Shaw is Senior Research Fellow at the Ethox Centre, University of Oxford, having taught at Brunel (1997-2004), London and Oxford Brookes universities. Her research interests include medical anthropology, ethnicity, kinship and social aspects of genetics. Her books include Kinship and Continuity: Pakistani families in Britain (Routledge 2000); A Pakistani Community in Britain (Blackwell 1888); and Changing Sex and Bending Gender (Berghahn 2005), edited with Shirley Ardener.

List of Figures
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Exploring genetic risk

Chapter 1: Medical and public perceptions of consanguineous marriage and genetic risk
Chapter 2: Close kin marriages: some anthropological theory and European history
Chapter 3: British Pakistani cousin marriages: balancing marital risks
Chapter 4: Medical surveillance and diagnostic uncertainty
Chapter 5: Responding to reproductive risk
Chapter 6: Foretelling and managing infant death
Chapter 7: Genetic screening and the extended family
Chapter 8: Genetic risk in context

Bibliography
Index

Drawing on fieldwork with British Pakistani clients of a UK genetics service, this book explores the personal and social implications of a 'genetic diagnosis'. Through case material and comparative discussion, the book identifies practical ethical dilemmas raised by new genetic knowledge and shows how, while being shaped by culture, these issues also cross-cut differences of culture, religion and ethnicity. The book also demonstrates how identifying a population-level elevated 'risk' of genetic disorders in an ethnic minority population can reinforce existing social divisions and cultural stereotypes. The book addresses questions about the relationship between genetic risk and clinical practice that will be relevant to health workers and policy makers.