The Human Genome Project and the Question of Ethicality

Launched in the late 1980' s, the Human Genome Project is an ambitious attempt, involving international collaboration, to map and sequence the approximately 3 billion nucleotides in the human genome The genome is the entire set of genes contained in the 23 sets of chromosomes that make up the cells of the human organism. The goal of the project is to identify the precise function of each of the genes in the human genome, or, put conversely, to find the precise location in the genome of every single known human trait or characteristic This makes it the largest-scale undertaking in the history of the biological sciences. One of the major benefits of mapping the human genome is that scientists will be able to identify the genes responsible for the more than 3000 kno~n genetic diseases By December 1998, over 480 million bases had been sequenced and the positions of over 2300 genes identified. In March of this year, a spokesperson for the project announced that at least 90 percent of the human genome would be sequenced by the spring of 2000, a year and a half ahead of schedule (Human

Biology · Computational biology · Gene · Genome · Genome project · Human genome · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · Computer Science · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Race, Genetics, and Society · Genetics