Legal and Ethical Considerations of the Human Genome Project1

This article seeks to highlight some of the more important ethical and legal issues raised by the Human Genome Project. It is recognized that hithertofore ethical control over the pace and scope of scientific progress has been only partly successful, due largely to the resistance of the professionals involved to outside interference and to the ineffectiveness of self-monitoring. The Human Genome Project has the potential to alter the lives of individuals and the structure of human society as a whole. It is essential therefore that individuals be empowered through the application and development of existing heads of liability in constitutional and private law to effect at least some of the necessary control. The transnational aspects of the project and the ethical and legal issues which it raises are also stressed.