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Abstract
Recent advances in genetic research can provide constructive preventive possibilities for individuals and society but also provide physicians and laypersons with new problems. For instance, in consultations dealing with the risk of getting hereditary cancer, physicians have to balance between the role of clinician, attending to the needs of a certain individual, and the role of researcher, collecting vital data for important research. Individuals taking part in these consultations not only have to interpret the information provided by the physicians. They might also be faced with the problem of informing others, often close kin, in a similar risk situation, or on the physician's behalf obtain information from them. They do not only receive bad news about themselves but are placed in a messenger's dilemma. The study is based on discourse data from 31 audio-taped talks between a physician and a person seeking information. Analyses of the consultations reveal how individuals seeking information about possible future diseases find themselves in a position where not only informing unknowing relatives, but also obtaining information from them, is experienced as giving them bad news.