At the beginning of the project, the Human Genome Project was compared to the Manhattan Project or the mission to put men on the moon. It was considered so broad and so complex that the funding could only come from the government. The Human Genome project is now in the hands of private labs. Those labs have forced the Human Genome Project into a rush to finish first. The Human Genome Project is a task that wishes to document all of the genes (over 100,000 of them) in the human body. From these genes, scientists want to find out specifically what their function is and they want to find out what malfunctions in the genes may trigger diseases such as cancer or heart disease.
Scientists began the project about 10 years ago and they hope to finish around 2003 with a rough draft around 2001 instead of the 2005 predication several years ago. The reason for moving up the date is the rapid competition of the private labs. The problem with the competition is that these labs want to patent the genes that they have discovered. It is not as if they want to patent the process to sift flour, they want to patent the flour! Did the guy who first found the gallbladder in a human, patent the gallbladder? No, he did not! No one person should be able to have ownership over some information that every single human being has, nor should he/she be able to make money by selling it. If a lab were to own part of a gene, no independent scientist could use the information if he did not have sufficient funds to buy the information. All future control in anything dealing with genes would go to large research teams at labs. Until recently, most scientists were independent and they contributed to the whole, bringing in different ideas and theories from everyone. If only a few laboratories could control the information in genes, the basis of science as we know it will be gone.
The Term Paper on Genome Project Human Genetic Genes
The Human Genome Project has been marked by criticism since the projects initiation in the late 1980's. The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international, combined research program, which sought to completely map and understand the human genome and to identify all genes present in it. The two parties involved in deciphering the human genome were the privately funded Celera Genomics and the ...
When the Human Genome Project gets to a point where every person can get tested and a map of their genes produced, who should be able to have access to that information? Many Americans have worried that certain institutions such as insurance agencies and mental hospitals should not have access to a person’s genetic information. Many states have laws that tell insurance companies that they can not deny coverage to someone based on predicted diseases that genetic testing would provide. The catch here is that there is no restriction on how high a premium that insurance company can charge. No insurance company should be able to have access to that information. Another concern with many Americans is mental hospitals having access to the information. If a mental hospital finds out that you have a 78% chance of manic depression, then the person may be forcedly treated for a disease that is in their genes but not expressed. The question of who should have access to our genetic information needs to be decided upon and fast.
Fifteen years ago we would not have thought much about genetic testing and the Human Genome Project–it would have never have crossed our minds as being plausible. Only a few science fiction books have portrayed the far-stretched situations that we are now beginning to think as possible. With all this new knowledge being uncovered, we are also going to have to realize that the government is going to have to take a larger part in our health care, and that means in our daily lives also. Is this something that we all want? The Human Genome project raises some serious questions.
The Essay on Genome Research Genetic Person Human
While creationist and evolutionists are arguing over who is right and where we (being the human race) came from, the rest of us are left to worry where all the advances in DNA/genome research will lead us. Australia has been slow to jump on the genome research bandwagon and become involved in larger scale research. Yet for biological and medical research we have contributed strongly. To undertake ...
