Perspectives on harm in personalized medicine

Avoiding harm is an uncontroversial aim of personalized medicine and otherepidemiologic initiatives. However, the precise mathematical translation of"harm" is disputable. Here we use a formal causal language to study common, butdistinct, definitions of "harm". We clarify that commitment to a definition ofharm has important practical and philosophical implications for decisionmaking. We relate our practical and philosophical considerations to ideas frommedical ethics and legal practice.