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Abstract
<p>This book gave me a new awareness that our essence as human beings arises from our family genetic heritage and from our experience of growing up with our family members. I consider myself very well informed about and committed to a family systems perspective in my work as a clinician, teacher, and scientist. However, while reading this exceptionally well-crafted book, I realized that my fundamental stance is anchored with the individual, and it needs to change. I had considered the family perspective important and necessary to complete the picture of any clinical situation, but I now see that my basic assumption was that I could choose to deal with only a given individual, separate from his or her family, and provide good solid medical care. I have not considered it mandatory to think of the impact of my interventions on a patient's family members to provide good enough care. This book reveals the fundamental interdependence of medical outcomes for family members and signals the new reality that any information about illness in a patient could have real, concrete implications for the risks of his or her family members. We have an ethical obligation to advise our patients and