Medical and Societal Consequences of the Human Genome Project

Abstract

The history of biology was forever altered a decade ago by the bold decision to launch a research program that would characterize in ultimate detail the complete set of genetic instructions of the human being. The idea captured the public imagination, perhaps less in the manner of America's wars on cancer and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome than in the manner of the great expeditions — those of Lewis and Clark, Sir Edmund Hillary, and even Neil Armstrong. Scientists wanted to map the human genetic terrain, knowing it would lead them to previously unimaginable insights, and from there to the common good. That good would include a new understanding of genetic contributions to human disease and the development of rational strategies for minimizing or preventing disease phenotypes altogether.