Table 1.

Emerging inter-group and cross-cultural themes concerning responsibilities and their underlying cultural narratives

Themes	Self-responsibility		Responsibility for kin		Responsibility of society
Respondents	Germany	Israel	Germany	Israel	Germany	Israel
Not affected	The “right not to know”—objecting to the test if it doesn’t entail any treatment, characteristic of Christian as well as secular respondents. Positive view as long as there is preventive treatment.	Both groups of respondents express a positive view as long as there is preventive treatment. A ‘duty to know’ as part of one’s required health maintenance also characteristic of Jewish (religious) respondentss	Moral conflict—negotiating what (not) to disclose since too much information can be detrimental	The majority of Israeli respondents, both affected and not affected, agreed about the moral duty to pass the information to one’s kin	Fears of unequal accessibility and health disparities, difficulties with health insurance. Both groups worry about negative discrimination	Both groups worry about negative discrimination. ‘positive discrimination’ relating to genetic data as potential source of affirmative action
Affected	Positive view of genetic testing, emphasized by a ‘duty to know’		Moral duty to inform family members, especially if the genetic data could have relevance for their life plans, particularly in terms of being alert to the health of one’s children		‘positive discrimination’ relating to genetic data as potential source of affirmative action

Italics and bold texts represent parallel arguments concerning specific themes of genetic responsibility