ELSI
Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of
the Human Genome Project 1989-1998.
Robert Bruen
Harvard University
ALM History of
Science 2002
Master's Thesis
Since 1990, National Institutes of
Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy (DOE) have provided funds for
research into the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of the
Human Genome Project. Never before has a large science project
attempted to consider the consequences of its research in a formally
funded manner. This site provides
a
history (Harvard Master's Thesis) of this
unique
effort
produced as a research project in the
History of Science. As part of this effort abstracts of the projects
that were awarded funding are made accessible.
The abstract contains
information about the study such as the amount of money, the year
the grant was awarded, a description of the project and a list of
any publications resulting from the study. The source for most of this
information is NIH and DOE.
The questions under consideration are basic ones:
- What was done?
- How was the money spent?
- Were the goals of each project reached?
- Were the original ELSI goals reached?
- What did we learn?
- What was the impact?
- Was it worth it?
- Should we do it for future science projects?
There are hundreds of projects that have been awarded funding
for studies, research, production of educational materials,
training programs, conferences among others. NIH and DOE provide
abstracts of the projects, and for some, any outcomes and the
funding information, but these are part of larger databases for all the
agency projects of which ELSI is only a small part. ELSI information
has been
extracted from the various databases and recombined on a per grant
basis. Access to the database of funding awards is provided here.
Other Related ELSI Sites
There are a number of important sites listed here including the
government funding agencies and places that have been funded.