The Human Genome Project and eugenic concerns

Abstract

The U.S. Human Genome project is the largest scientific project funded by the federal government since the Apollo Moon Project. The overall effect from this project should be of great benefit to humankind because it will provide a better understanding both of single gene defects and multifactorial or familial diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, and cancer. At first this will lead to more exact ways of screening and diagnosing genetic disease, and later it will lead, in many if not most instances, to specific genetic cures. However, in the past, in both the U.S. and German eugenic movements genetic information has been misused. Hopefully, by remembering and understanding the past injustices and inhumanity of negative eugenics, further misuse of scientific information can be avoided.