Abstract

KIE: Culliton discusses what she terms the "unprecedented" public scrutiny to which the technology of gene therapy and its potential application in humans have been subjected. She summarizes the federal government's interest in this area, ranging from the Office of Technology Assessment's report, Human Gene Therapy, to the creation of the Working Group on Human Gene Therapy. The latter, a subcommittee of the National Institutes of Health's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, released a list of "points to consider" by researchers planning to design and submit protocols to NIH for gene therapy research in humans. Culliton notes that some of the questions that the working group asks potential researchers "go beyond the usual" to address controversial areas of gene therapy such as primate studies, public health considerations, public relations, patents, and eugenics.