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Human Genome Project and the Courts: Gene Therapy and Beyond

NCJ Number
180926
Journal
Judicature Volume: 83 Issue: 3 Dated: November-December 1999 Pages: 124-130
Author(s)
Maxwell J. Mehlman
Date Published
1999
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The impact of the Human Genome Project will occur both in the possibility of gene therapy to treat genetic diseases and disorders and the need for courts to settle an array of related disputes among patients, health care professionals, insurers, and the government.
Abstract
The Human Genome Project will provide scientists with the data and tools to identify and understand the basis of genetic diseases and disorders, as well as other genetically related traits. The new technologies will create a host of difficult and often unprecedented ethical and legal controversies, many of which will find their way to the courts for resolution. Issues will include access to treatment, the ethics of human experimentation in gene therapy, the appropriate standard of care to be used by health care professionals, the enhancement of genetic traits that are not related to disease, parental authority regarding the manipulation of their children's genetic characteristics, unfairness, and negligence. Overall, gene therapy and related technologies will challenge conventional notions of illness, insurance, personal worth, and desert, as well as the limits of governmental control over individual freedom and parental discretion. Ultimately the courts will decide how far the law can go in response to these challenges. What is certain is that the society that emerges will look very different from the current one. Footnotes