Postmortem disclosure of genetic information to family members: active or passive?

• Routine clinical application of NGS is on the horizon.
• A consensus exists that some subsets of genetic information should be disclosed to patients.
• Disclosure to relatives is less consensual, particularly after a patient's death.
• We examine whether genetic information should be disclosed postmortem, and propose a passive postmortem disclosure policy.

Advances in next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) now make it possible, and affordable, to sequence the entire genome of an individual. Routine clinical application is on the horizon. There is a consensus that some subsets of genetic information should be disclosed to patients, but disclosure to their relatives is less consensual. This issue becomes especially salient after a patient's death, when permission can no longer be sought. There has however been little debate on postmortem disclosure. We identify and explain the arguments in favor of and against disclosure of genetic information to the relatives of a deceased patient. We conclude that there are valid reasons to communicate some subsets of genetic information to family members after death, and we propose a passive postmortem disclosure policy.