Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:10:45.591Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Who's Afraid of the Human Genome Project?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Philip Kitcher
Philip Kitcher*
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Human Genome Project (henceforth HGP) arouses strong feelings. Enthusiasts view it as the culmination of the extraordinary progress of molecular biology during the past half century and as the beginnings of a revolutionized biology and medicine (Gilbert 1992, Caskey 1992). Detractors charge that it is wasteful, misguided, and pregnant with possibilities for social harm (Lewontin 1992, Hubbard and Wald 1993). In a short paper it is plainly impossible to explore all the sources of disagreement. My aim will be to consider the debate about the purely scientific merit of the HGP, to sketch the nature of the short-term issues which the project raises, and, finally, to identify what I take to be the deepest and most difficult questions.

The official goals of the HGP are to map and sequence the human genome, and the genomes of other organisms (so-called “model organisms”).

Type
Part X. Policy Issues in Human Genetics
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1994 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1994 , 1994 , pp. 312 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Caskey, C.T. (1992), “DNA-Based Medicine: Prevention and Therapy” in Kevles, D. and Hood, L. (eds.) The Code of Codes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 112–135.Google Scholar
Daniels, N. (1994), “The Genome Project, Individual Differences, and Just Health Care”, in Murphy, T. and Lappe, M. (eds.) Justice and the Human Genome Project (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 110–132.Google Scholar
Draper, E. (1991), Risky Business. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dujon, B. et.al. (1994), “Complete DNA sequence of yeast chromosome XI”, Nature 369: 371–378.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, W. (1992), “A Vision of the Grail”, in Kevles, D. and Hood, L. (eds.) The Code of Codes. Cambridge MA.: Harvard University Press, pp. 83–97.Google Scholar
Holtzman, N.A. (1989), Proceed With Caution. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.Google Scholar
Hubbard, R. and Wald, E. (1993), Exploding the Gene Myth. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Johnston, M. et. al. (1994), “Complete Nucleotide Sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Chromosome VIII”, Science 265: 2077–2082.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kitcher, P. (1996), Choosing Genes, Changing Lives. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Lander, E.S. and Schork, N.J. (1994), “Genetic Dissection of Complex Traits”, Science 265: 2037–2048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawrence, P. (1992), The Making of a Fly. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R.C. (1992), “The Dream of the Human Genome”, in Lewontin, R., Biology as Ideology. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Nelkin, D. and Tancredi, L. (1989), Dangerous Diagnostics. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Paul, D. (1995), [this volume]Google Scholar
Rapp, R. (1994), “Amniocentesis in Socio-cultural Perspective”, Journal of Genetic Conselling (in press).Google Scholar
Rosenberg, A. (1995), [this volume]Google Scholar
Tauber, A. and Sarkar, S. (1992), “The Human Genome Project: Has Blind Reductionism Gone Too Far?”, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 35: 220–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, R. et.al. (1994), “2.2 Mb of contiguous nucleotide sequence from chromosome III of C. elegans”, Nature 368: 32–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed