Legal Issues on Human Genome Project - Essay Example

Lecture:

Legal Issues on Human Genome Project

Human genome project refers to a global research meant to study the alignment sequence of DNA in the totality of human genome. Many players are contributing to the development of Human genome project: among them are, The US Department of energy; where initially human genome project consultations and initiation of the project began in 1984 and National Human Genome Research Institute; provided initial funding of human genome project in the year 1988. In addition to the two, US tertiary institutions, laboratories and international partners; France, United Kingdom, and Germany are also major players. Despite the project having many economic implications on the health related issues such as treating of cancer, it has also got numerous legal issues on the project including business legal concerns. Some of the main issues are, discrimination in insurance and employment issues, difficulties in regulation of the rapid genetic revolution, intellectual property right problems, benefit sharing, decision making and privacy and confidentiality (Enriquez, 903).

To begin with is the legal issue of discrimination in insurance and employment. Sequencing of human genome of the entire populations may lead to segregations of a particular community affected by a certain disorder regarding the job, health services, insurance and neglect from family members (Laura, 26). Insurance companies may come up with regulations for taking a test of people with potential genetic disorders before being issued an insurance cover. If the individual is found having the disorder, then he or she is not given the insurance cover. The human genome project continues to discover new gene tests of different diseases. This prompts insurance companies to make life assurance policies more and more expensive for the potential carriers of the genes. Another aspect human genome project is the gene therapy which is being developed steadily until it becomes operational. This is likely to be expensive, and insurance companies may not allow such policies due to high risk, and the risk is costly to be covered. This means that there is fear that only the rich people can afford the therapy. Employers may also make it a requirement for one to be screened in the detection of potentially susceptible genes to a certain environment. If one is found to have the genes, he or she will be denied the job.

Secondly, legal issues concerning intellectual property transfer. For any new technological innovation, a patent should be granted to the innovator so that he or she enjoys his/her discoveries and as a result encouraging innovations and research. A patent is usually given to not less than twenty years and must be made public during the acquisition period so that after expiry period, further research can be done. The controversy has risen over the years about who is the real owner of sequences of DNA of human genes as many have taken the patents over the same (Enriquez, 911). Many are of the opinion that sequencing of human genes should never be patented because human genome is a common feature of all people and are inheritable from generation to generation. Other arguments suggest that discoveries of DNA should never be patented because DNA it exists naturally and therefore it is a discovery and not anyone’s invention. In addition to that, many techniques employed to isolate and alter the DNA are distinct and do not have their originality and therefore many of the DNA projects does not qualify to be patented. The other opponents also argue that human genome belongs to the supreme creator that is God and therefore cannot be commercialized by multinationals for profits. The first people to discover DNA structure, Watson, and Crick never patented the scientific discovery but on the other side, the therapeutic industries throw their weight on the argument that, lump sum money is invested in the development therapeutics and drugs hence should be given pure monopolies to maximize usage of their scientific discoveries.

Thirdly, legal issues on benefit sharing. The research on human genetics seeks to identify variance of individuals who show resistance or more prone to genetic disorders in certain environment conditions. The researchers must use this person for their research to be successful development of new drugs, but the challenge is that the real people who provided useful data may not gain the huge profits realized from the project. The village donor, community, nation or tribes whose genetic materials may not be paid hence this raises issues on the molarity and ethics of the human genome project (Enriquez, 923). Since sharing of profits may not benefit all, many see the project as of selfish gains in the name of combating illness.

Apart from legal issues on sharing, another problem is about confidentiality and privacy of the individual. There have been queries whether when a genetic disorder has been detected, is the result solely for the individual “patient” or the family also have the right to the same information? Or should the family have a right to access data of one their members so that they can know the genetic condition of them as a whole? (Laura, 31). Another issue may be the rights of an individual to know the future implications of their health problems. These issues are important to ensure that there is no discrimination basing of such data. Department of an investigation under Major League balls investigates football players used genetic testing to determine their real reported ages.

Next legal issue is of identifying genes associated with criminal activities. Many character behavior related to evil doings in the society can be identified by research on the human genome. Cases on criminals are based on the evidence that the accused acted or is capable of being influenced to do that certain particular action. The main concerns come in if through genetic analysis of an individual is carried and then discovered that the action of the person was affected by a preexisting genetic trait. The law allows genetic disorders in determining criminal cases. Proved and established impairments are taken into consideration when the ruling is made.

Another important is the laws concerning human rights. Efforts are being put place to create dignity and respect of human rights with human genome project and developmental genetic technology research (Laura, 41). No person should be treated poorly because of genetic traits that can eventually affect basic rights of an individual and human dignity.

Human genome project will ensure availability of genetic information to the public. If the information genome of every person is made available, then there will be a problem on how we relate and interact with one another. Some have argued that this will lead to racism. Equally, other people have pointed out that if the ultimate goal of the human genome project is to eliminate diseases and disorders, boosting the lifespan, avoid death during childbirth and add intelligence (Enriquez, 917). Then, the money meant for combating this disease should be relocated to do something different. Genetic disorders may not necessarily cause some diseases but results from the surroundings and social reasons. For instance, diabetes and regular consumption of drugs among the despised in the society make it unreasonable to allocate little money for research on genetic diseases.

The second last point is, legal issues touching medical therapies. Many research scientists in the human genome have been able to identify and detect genetic disorders; they are even able to predict the future implications of the diseases. Most of the genetic disorders are inherited therefore need to worry since they are likely to bring suffering to human beings. For instance, genes in the human genome that show Huntington disease has been discovered by scientists. The carriers of the condition can be identified by accurate assays which have been developed. These discoveries in medical therapies will to destroying of newborn with the disorders during birth or abortions after testing so that the future generations of Huntington’s do not exist (Enriquez, 911). The questions have been asked whether it is a good on legal grounds and molarity. What are the implications of elimination of defective genes? Are there a less destructive means of the genes instead of destroying the whole life of a person born with Huntington condition?

Lastly but not least, is the legal issues on decision making. Careful decisions should be made regarding human genome project. This process may have numerous benefits but care considerations need to be made. For instance, there has been speed in implementing the cloning of reproduction in human beings without careful consideration of the idea. Later research shows that we should not have rushed to such prohibitions. Reproductive cloning should never be taken that it will give the same outcome. Every individual has environmental adaptations and genetic inheritance from parents (Enriquez, 913). It is hard to secure a global agreement on yet without these genomic regulations; country laws will never be operational.

In summary, there are many legal, ethical and social issues concerning human genome project. Concerns regarding legal matters on human genome are many, but the major ones include discrimination, ownership and commercialization, rights privacy and confidentiality, decision-making and legal issues on medical therapies (Laura, 38). Genetic assays have been developed to detect specific disorders in the human genome though there are many legal challenges and implications. It is expected that shortly, issues will have been scaled down so that the matter of genetic disorders will be eliminated. The current development of technology on scientific studies has outnumbered the available legislative laws making it difficult to solve issues on the use of human genome project to treat genetic diseases. It will take a couple of years before genetic disorders are treated.

Work cited

J. Enriquez, "Genomics and the World's Economy," Science, 900-926, August 14, 1998. Print

Laura Landon, "Insurance Giant Wants Your Gene Map: ‘If the Information Is There, We Would Like to Be Able to Use It,’ " 25-45. The Ottawa Citizen, 6 July 2000. Print