Medical genetics in South Africa : past lessons, future challenges

Abstract

Mr Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, colleagues and friends, I have in the preceding address delineated my vision of the core role of medical genetics as it pertains to medicine in South Africa today. In undertaking this I have related the development of Human and Medical Genetics internationally to that in our own country, both past and present. Thereafter I have attempted to offer some insights into the challenges my generation of medical geneticists is facing in the new millenium. These challenges offer us the opportunity of evolving solutions for our own unique South African circumstances. However, I believe implicitly that these answers will have consequences, not only for us but also for other underdeveloped countries and the First World. Although the Department of Human Genetics and Developmental Biology is small and our history short, I am confident that, as we have managed to be in the vanguard of developments in medical genetics this decade, this will continue into the next century.