Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to the project pointed to the limited resources available for biomedical re-
search and warned of the detrimental effects of diverting funds from exist-
ing cancer, pediatric, and other medical research in order to fund a hGP.
in the end, hGP supporters carried the day and won a political battle
for congressional support of the equivalent to a manhattan Project for bio-
medicine. Alice Dreger (2000) of michigan state University describes how
hGP advocates did this in an essay titled “metaphors of morality in the hu-
man Genome Project.” Dreger argues that through clever use of terms, in-
clud ing
genetic frontier, gene mapping,
and
bad genes,
supporters of the hGP
made it patriotic to support the project and unpatriotic to oppose it.
Americans view themselves as conquerors of frontiers—first there was
the new World, then the Western frontier, the moon, close inspections of
mars and the outer planets, and hubble Telescope views of the early uni-
verse. By successfully portraying the hGP as the means to conquer a scien-
tific frontier that would bring health and happiness to Americans and oth-
ers throughout the world, it became difficult for legislators to argue against
it. “Gene mapping” conjured up an image of biologist explorers mapping
new territories to be claimed for the national interest. The phrase “bad
genes” was also used to garner political support for the hGP. one hGP
proponent borrowed the inscription on the statue of liberty, editorializ-
ing that the hGP was necessary to aid “the poor, the infirm, and the un-
derprivileged” who through no fault of their own had inherited bad genes.
What red-blooded American who believes in equal opportunity for all
could oppose a project that promised to rescue innocent victims from bad
genes? in 1988, the Us Congress voted to fund an hGP through the na-
tional institutes of health. nobel laureate James Watson became the proj-
ect's first director and promised to deliver the complete sequence of the
human genome by 2005 at a cost of $3 billion. Work began in 1990.
Specific Objectives of the HGP
one of Dr. Watson's first actions as director was to make the hGP an in-
ternational project. he recognized the importance of the project being a
venture of humankind rather than being owned by just one nation. his ef-
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