When considering the history of the U.S., one will notice that most economic surges have been triggered by key events.  The reasons for these rushes have been varied: war, technology, and policy movements.  For example, in the nation’s first few years following the Revolutionary War, the economy was stimulated because the country as a whole moved from relying on foreign imports to becoming fiscally independent.  More recently, with the advent of the computer, monetary resources have poured into the area of technology as the entire business and government infrastructure makes a transition from paper to electronic.  Today, however, the country is on the brink of a medical revolution.  In 1990, the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health launched a joint venture called the Human Genome Project, its goal being to sequence the human genome.  The information gained from the project will essentially allow physicians to access the “instruction manual” of the human body.  With just one cell, scientists will be able to manipulate specific characteristics of an entire organism.  Having realized the tremendous value of the knowledge gained through the project, investors have begun to pour billions of dollars into the biotechnology sector, causing the AMEX Biotechnology Stock Index[i], to quadruple in the past 5 years.  The NASDAQ Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the two main U.S. economy barometers, have merely doubled in the same time period[ii].  The once exceedingly ambitious completion date of the project has been moved ahead from 2005 to 2003, as more companies put their resources into the project.  Nevertheless, while the economic outlook is optimistic, not everything is positive.  For with the new technology comes a new set of ethical dilemmas that society must deal with before the benefits of the project can be realized.  In addition, this field of research takes science into an unknown world, and everything may not occur as anticipated.  Overall, it seems, from the events to date, that in fulfilling the goals of the Human Genome Project and putting the data generated into application, the U.S. economy and medical industry will experience a significant forward acceleration, but this will occur at the expense of a new range of ethical issues. 

         The Human Genome Project was started in 1990 to map and sequence the human genome.  Genome is a word that describes a cell’s entire genetic code, which is contained in a chemical called DNA.  At a microscopic level, DNA is made up of two intertwining strands called a double helix.  In between this helix are individual letters called base pairs, and these letters constitute the genes of an organism.  Human DNA is made up of about 30,000 genes and three billion base pairs, which are collectively called the human genome.  All DNA is wrapped up into 23 pairs of packages called chromosomes, and each cell nucleus contains a set of these chromosomes.  DNA is the code by which cells produce proteins, and these proteins then execute all essential cellular functions in the body, from managing chemical reactions to transmitting messages between organs.  First conceived in 1859 with the publishing of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, scientists have been aware of the existence of genes and DNA for more than a century.  Never in history, however, has there been such a complete and thorough undertaking into the cell nucleus as the Human Genome Project.   The main goal of the project is to map and sequence the base pairs of human DNA into one complete volume of data, which can then be used for further research.  Full completion of the project, with 99.9% accuracy, is expected in 2003. 

         With data from the Human Genome Project, scientists may be able to cure common genetic diseases such as Sickle Cell Anemia.  Alzheimer’s, another genetic disease, occurs when certain genes mutate and then deposit proteins erroneously in the brain, leading to neurological abnormalities.  Doctors so far have not been able to treat Alzheimer’s, because with the more than 30,000 genes in human DNA, no one knows which particular ones are responsible for the disease.  With data from the Human Genome Project, however, researchers can compare the genomes of those afflicted with Alzheimer’s to the “pure” human genome as determined by the project.  This capability enables scientists to identify the faulty genes causing the disease, and with this information, scientists can then replace the “misspelled” genes with the correct ones.  After this genetic replacement, no more proteins will flow to the brain, leading to the disease’s end.  Currently, four million Americans alone have Alzheimer’s[iii], and thus one can only imagine the massive number of people who could be served if doctors could detect and cure this and countless other genetic diseases.

         Identifying problematic genes will also allow doctors to detect genetic disease early on, yielding the possibility of early treatment to prevent its development.  The option of pre-natal screening may also open up in the future.  If a fetus is known to have a certain genetic disease or defect, treatment can be given while the embryo is still developing, thereby eradicating disease and eliminating birth defects that could otherwise hamper the baby for the rest of her life.

         The majority of current medical capabilities limit doctors to treating merely the symptoms of disease, but genetic medicine allows doctors to treat the actual cause of the disease at the molecular level.  People who have cystic fibrosis must have daily therapy to help them cough up the mucus trapped in their lungs.  Removing mucus prevents the patient from suffocation, but the disease is still present.  With the genetic data made available by the Human Genome Project, however, the gene that produces bad proteins associated with disease can be deactivated, thereby eliminating both the proliferation of disease and the need to treat the patients’ symptoms.  Genetic medicine also opens the prospects for targeted therapy, a treatment where only cancerous cells are wiped out.  For most cancer patients, the only effective treatment is chemotherapy, a grueling type of therapy that kills cancerous cells, but also destroys an equivalent amount of beneficial cells in the process.  Genetic medicine on the other hand, goes directly to the source and blocks the gene form producing the corrupt protein altogether, thus eliminating only the detrimental cells.

         Associated with this colossal breakthrough in medical technology comes an even bigger advance for the U.S. economy.  The goals of the Human Genome Project and its medical applications will bring about numerous economic changes in U.S. industries.[iv]

         As valuable as the data from the project is, every country in the world will want some piece of the genome pie.[v]  In fact, the second goal of the project is to distribute the data worldwide, and to facilitate this need, an array of technological developments will occur.  The computing industry will have to develop software to sort and store the information in easily accessible databases.  A global network connecting laboratories worldwide will be needed so that researchers can share data and work together in further investigation.  Better computers for faster and cheaper sequencing will be needed, because every scientist from Alabama to Zimbabwe will want to conduct their own exploration. 

To make use of the data gained through the project, a multitude of new companies will emerge, each specializing in a subset of the project.  Companies will arise to meet the equipment demands of these innovative applications.  They will produce conventional genetic scanning devices, tools for genetic surgery, computers to analyze patients’ genomes, and eventually even home testing kits.  Other companies will work with the actual genes to make products.  The scientists at these companies will isolate and alter genes to perform specific functions once implanted in the body.  The next important piece of the puzzles will be determining how to perform genetic surgery, or the introduction of the new genes into cells.  This will lead to the development of companies that train and market the genetic technologists that perform such operations.  A final group of new start-ups will focus on genetic medicine and designing drugs to target and destroy specific genes.  While many companies such as Genentech and Genzyme[vi] have already begun such research, the 30,000 genes in humans will allow other new companies to get their own share.  The numerous new corporations formed as a result of the project will definitely have an impact on the medical industry. 

         While the possibilities made available by the Human Genome Project may bring wonderful medical breakthroughs and a spark to the U.S. economy, there is also a downside in the new set of ethical dilemmas that society must face.  But even before such a medical venture was conceived, American authors have been addressing the moral issues brought by the project’s onset. 

 Up to the current age, the vast majority of medicine has been external, meaning that the human body’s actual mechanisms have been left untouched.  For example, doctors employ antibiotics to strengthen the body’s defenses against viruses, but the doctors go no further; they then just rely on the internal human immune system to take care of eliminating the disease.  With the advent of the Human Genome Project, however, scientists will begin to work inside the actual cell nucleus and will modify the body’s genetic blueprint, thereby altering the body itself.  This brings up the question of whether humans should try to perfect God’s imperfect creation, and furthermore, can or should perfection be achieved.  In Lois Lowry’s The Giver[vii], the community is made to be a utopia: the climate is controlled, and there is no hunger, violence, and pain.  Instead of exposing the community members to these emotions, the feelings are stored in a selected person called the giver.  This utopia is similar to the one that the society is being introduced to through the Human Genome Project.  The new technology will open the door to so many medical capabilities that people may become mechanically engineered, as in the future, it may be possible to repair all “defects”.   Though such a scenario may seem like a utopia, one must consider whether such a robotic world would really be perfect.  Lowery attests that striving for utopia makes living much less worthwhile.  She ends her novel with the giver and his successor releasing the emotions of life back into the community, after deciding that it is best to live in a normal community instead of an insipid utopia.

As it is unknown exactly what information this medical breakthrough will bring, society must decide how to react to new discoveries.  In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest[viii], the main characters are ward patients who have been classified as insane, yet they all act like “normal” people and can survive just as well.  In fact, a group of patients even decide to go on an unsupervised fishing trip.  At the dock, they are taunted by some workmen because their badges designate them as residents of an asylum.  When the patients return with a boat full of fish, however, the workmen silently recant their first impressions, and the narrator, a ward patient, comments, “[the workmen] could sense the change that most of us were only suspecting; these [patients] weren’t the same bunch of weak-knees from a nuthouse that they’d watched take their insults on the dock this morning.”[ix]  The isolation and degradation of those labeled as insane, like in Kesey’s novel, is an example of what may happen if certain “trait” genes are discovered.  If a  “violence” gene were to be found, would society isolate and abhor those who were genetically determined to be “violent”?  Similarly, if there were an “intelligence” gene, would only those classified as intelligent be allowed to hold office and have the high positions in the world?  Though Kesey’s characters were just as capable in life as ordinary people, they were confined to an asylum because society determined them to be “not sane”.  Will the people who possess the violence gene automatically be designated as harmful to society, and even furthermore, will they be detained and required to get “treatment”?  These questions are examples of how the new information we gain may also be detrimental in the predicaments it causes. 

With the medical capabilities made possible by the Human Genome Project, society will have to decide how to deal with choices never available before.  The main conflict in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn[x] is Huck’s struggles with dilemmas that he has not been taught to deal with before.  Poorly brought up by a drunkard father, Huck is adopted by an old widow who tries to teach him good values.  Huck feels restricted by the moral codes of the widow’s teaching, and he runs away, desiring to live freely in the wilderness.  Without a guardian, however, Huck is forced to make decisions independently, and one day he confronts himself with stealing, stating, “[pap] always said it warn’t no harm to borrow things if you was meaning to pay them back some time; but the widow said it warn’t anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it.”[xi]  With the new medical power at hand, society is like Huck, forced to struggle with new subjects.  Parents may now have the power to choose the gender, eye color, and hair color of their baby, yet they must decide whether it is ethical to make such a choice.  One can side with Pap, who says that it is fine to do something as long there are no harmful consequences to anyone at hand, and indeed, there may be absolutely no side effects or downsides to choosing a baby’s genetic traits.  Or one can take the widow’s firm stance that positive or negative, humans should not interfere with the task assigned to a higher being.  Though Mark Twain was definitely unaware of the prospect of the Human Genome Project when he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the moral conflicts that the project brings up seem borne into his novel.

The information gained from the Human Genome Project will have an overwhelmingly positive effect on medical technology and on the U.S. economy.  However, it will come at the cost of a new set of ethical questions that society must face.  Like with all innovations, while many people will be helped by this medical breakthrough, numerous will be hurt.  Patients who at one time were thought to be beyond cure will now be presented effective and painless treatment options.  On the other hand, the new options will expose people to new choices that challenge society’s moral foundation.  Though dilemmas, however, American authors have been discussing such issues for years, and it seems as if society is being thrown the same set of moral questionings again, except this time through a different medium.  Only time will tell how society handles them this time around, however.