This week, the Leopoldina, Germany's national academy of sciences in Halle, is due to publish a historic report. The publication analyses how advances will affect the field of predictive genetic diagnosis, and calls for changes in a law that has confused science and ideology. It is also notable for being the first report to come from the Leopoldina in its role as a national academy — three and a half centuries after it was set up.

The law, which came into force in February, had been debated for nearly a decade. The legislation was intended to protect the population from the possible abuse of genetics, but instead presents an unreasonable threat to the health of individuals with treatable genetic disorders.

One problem is that the law ranks patient confidentiality above a doctor's responsibility to the health of that patient's relatives. It rules, for example, that genetic data collected for diagnosis should be destroyed after ten years, even though the guidelines of the German Chamber of Physicians say that such data should be retained for at least 30 years to provide for the health of the next generation. The law also misunderstands details of science. To name but one instance, it redefines neonatal screening for genetic disease — used routinely for decades to identify 12 treatable genetic disorders by chemical, not DNA, analysis — as 'genetic screening'. This means that a doctor with expertise in genetic counselling, rather than a midwife, must take blood for the test. This complicates processes, and in small rural hospitals where such expertise is not available some doctors are reportedly simply choosing not to screen.

These problems have their roots in a cultural fear of sharing medical data — a legacy of the Nazi era. With Germany's federalized health-care system, patients can move between doctors of their choosing without any of their medical history following them. This situation makes it impossible to carry out optimal population screening for genetic diseases, and will restrict the future health value of new technologies.

The Leopoldina, too, is embroiled in the legacies of history — and has seen a lot of history flow past since it was founded as a scientific academy in 1652. In 2007, federal research minister Annette Schavan unilaterally declared that the Leopoldina would become Germany's national academy. In doing so, she put an end to years of acrimonious debate about which, if any, of the country's seven regional academies should be elevated to this status. That ruffled feathers. Germany's federal structure was designed as a core element of its 1949 constitution, to prevent any centralization of power and thus to ensure that a fascist regime could never take control again. Individual states were given wide powers and have inevitably become protective of them. All this left Germany without a national academy to provide, among other things, authoritative and independent scientific advice for policy-making. With its first report, the Leopoldina has already shown the value of such an institution.

The academy established a committee of 17 scientists and legal experts to analyse how new genomic technologies and other advances are set to affect predictive genetic diagnosis, and how Germany can better prepare itself for the opportunities and ethical challenges that will follow. The resulting report, Predictive Genetic Diagnostics as an Instrument of Disease Prevention, calls for the creation of national centres of competence to overcome these barriers. There are legal hurdles to this, but they can, and should, be overcome.

The Leopoldina's report responds to a shadow of history. Politicians should follow its recommendations and change the law to prevent further damage. It is time for Germany to see its past in the appropriate historical context, and to ensure that its psychological legacies do not inadvertently harm the innocent today. And the Leopoldina? From its base in what was once an important centre of chemical industry in the former East Germany, it will be able to direct a little bit of history, not just watch it flow by.