RATIONALE

During this time of overwhelming discovery about the genome, we have many questions that we need to ask ourselves.  One of the more philosophical questions we must ask is, "Why are we really doing this?"  There are many answers to this question and this exploration is intended to give the student a chance to examine three perspectives: the government, a private company and herself or himself.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

    PART 1

    Use the following resources to give an point of view of each of the three aforementioned     perspectives: government, business, individual, with regard to the following issues.

    1.  What is the benefit of genetic research? Give specific examples for each perspective.

    2.  What would be the motive to expend time, money and energy into the discovery or use of genetic information?  Give specific examples for each perspective.

    PART 2

    Compare and contrast the two web sites of the Department of Energy and Celera Incorporated and discuss the following questions.

    1.  What is the motive behind human genome discovery?

    2.  Who has a web site which is more appealing to the eye?

    3.  What is each site trying to "sell"?

RESOURCES

    Discussion Topics

    Department of Energy's Sugested Ethical, Legal, Societal Issues that have surfaced during the Human Genome Project    

    PBS - PBS provides wonderful topics and questions to promote research and discussion.

    Societal Issues to consider

     Bioethics

     The Law

     Economics    Why would a company venture into such difficult work as trying to identify the     complete human genome?

    OTHER ETHICAL ISSUES