|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Spanning Disciplines, Advancing Knowledge Promoting Awareness, Progress, and Applications of the Human Genome Project |
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Program
Human
Genome News Archive Edition |
Human Genome News, May 1990; 2(1)
Nine Specialists Participate in First ELSI Workshop
The Joint Working Group on the Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) Related to Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome held its first workshop on February 5-6, 1990, at Williamsburg, Virginia. See Related articles NIH-DOE Joint Working Group on ELSI Established and Juengst To Head NCHGR Ethics Program. Chaired by Nancy S. Wexler of the Hereditary Disease Foundation and Columbia University, the ELSI working group hosted nine specialists in the fields of sociology, history, ethics, genetic counseling, law, labor, insurance, and journalism. The invited specialists are listed below.
The meeting opened with a general discussion of the following issues:
After consideration and discussion of these topics, workshop participants developed the four priority areas that are highlighted below.
The recent identification of the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis has paved the way for development and commercialization of methods to determine a person's carrier status and to identify affected fetuses. Tracking and examining in detail the cystic fibrosis experience promises to provide an instructive model of issues relevant to the Human Genome Project. These issues include:
The use of genetic tests by private insurance companies to predict future health problems and thereby to determine an applicant's insurability has become an important issue. Increased availability of genetic test information may identify new, large groups of people who are predisposed to common ailments such as heart disease, cancers, diabetes mellitus, and immune disorders. The concern is how private insurers will use this information to calculate the financial risk of insuring individuals who carry these genes. Studies are needed to identify how and which genetic information would be used to determine a certain group's insurance risk and to define its insurability.
Currently, insurance premium reductions are given for health-promoting behavior such as exercising, limiting alcohol intake, and not smoking. The workshop participants questioned whether insurers would give similar rewards to people who carry tumor-suppressor genes, toxin-resistance genes, or genetically hearty immune systems.
While most private insurers do not use genetic tests to determine whom they will insure, insurance companies do feel they should have access to such information if their policy holders do. Because private insurance companies operate as for-profit businesses and may withhold coverage from individuals who carry disease genes, the working group suggested that alternative systems of health insurance for these people need to be researched.
Clinicians, journalists, and other workshop participants who frequently deal with the general public observed that the public at large seems either to be uninformed or to hold strong misconceptions about medical genetics and the role of genes in biology, disease, and behavior. After the public's understanding is assessed, education and outreach programs need to be developed so that informed debate and discussion about the social implications of the Human Genome Project can take place.
Workshop participants also felt that, in addition to underscoring science and medical benefits likely to stem from genome project research, education should demystify genetics and genome science. Special precautions should be taken to point out that determining the complete sequence of human DNA will not necessarily produce immediate cures or knowledge of how gene functions determine human characteristics. Also, the opportunity to examine genetic material of large numbers of people is likely to force a redefinition of the concepts of "normal," "health," and "disease"; value-neutral language should be adopted when referring to the wide variations in human genetic composition.
The ability to use an individual's genetic makeup to make biological predictions may intensify the notion of "genetic determinism"-- the idea that genes alone direct a person's biological and, possibly, social fate. Education should emphasize the roles that environment and many other factors play in an individual's social, behavioral, and physical development.
Organizations and institutions already in place for disseminating information must be identified. They may include the mass media and school systems, health volunteer associations, organizations for medical and allied health professionals, labor groups, policy makers, and religious groups. Also, the needs of people most likely to be affected by the availability of genetic information should be addressed by open dialogue between the ELSI working group and members of genetic disease and disability support groups.
As genetic testing technology becomes more widely available, access to genetic information by the individual, family, employers, insurance companies, and other institutions will increasingly affect personal privacy and the dissemination of medical information. Workshop participants identified three current levels of confidentiality in medical information: patient, medical institution, and government.
In addition, computerized databases now exist for storing "confidential" medical information. The participants felt that guidelines establishing responsible use of such information should address consent to be tested, the patient's right to know or not to know test results, how information is used by physicians to make decisions about medical care, and how information may be used by a patient's family.
To implement the working group's recommendations, NCHGR and DOE may fund projects initiated by the research community or may invite applications from other groups with appropriate expertise. Some possibilities considered are workshops, task forces, commissioned papers, reports, and contracts.
February 5-6, 1990, Williamsburg, Virginia
HGMIS Staff<</i>P> Return to Table of Contents
The electronic form of the newsletter may be cited in the following style:
Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v2n1).
Last modified: Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Home * Contacts * Disclaimer
Document Use and Credits
Publications and webpages on this site were created by the U.S. Department of Energy Genome Program's Biological and Environmental Research Information System (BERIS). Permission to use these documents is not needed, but please credit the U.S. Department of Energy Genome Programs and provide the website http://genomics.energy.gov. All other materials were provided by third parties and not created by the U.S. Department of Energy. You must contact the person listed in the citation before using those documents.
Base URL: www.ornl.gov/hgmis
Site sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science, Office
of Biological and Environmental Research, Human
Genome Program
