Empowering the public? Citizens' juries and the new genetic technologies

Abstract

The exploration of public views on complex health policy issues has used a number of methods ranging from surveys to focus groups. These have suffered from being primarily designed to collect information, rather than attempting to ameliorate the ‘democratic deficit’ in decision making, particularly in the introduction of the new genetic technologies. Citizens' juries have been promoted recently as an alternative to these more conventional approaches, and this paper evaluates a recent attempt to expand the scope of the citizens' jury to Wales, focusing on the introduction of genetic testing for common disorders.