"The Stigma of Disease: Implications of Genetic Testing"

The purpose of this project is to investigate the stigmatization of the sick as it applies to new developments in genetic testing, screening, and diagnostics. Using the methods of medical and social historiography, historical case studies of social alienation and isolation will be analyzed, compared, and contrasted to the potential social and ethical problems we face with the vast scientific knowledge to be gained from the HGP. A particularly useful historical paradigm for assessing the potential of stigmatization of carriers or sufferers of genetic diseases are the uses and abuses of quarantine in the United States over the past 150 years. This study intends on broadening the concept of quarantine to include any attempt society makes to place divisions between groups of people perceived to be 'diseased' be the reasons medical, moral, or social, and the mainstream society fearing contamination. These historical paradigms will be discussed in the context of society's responses to genetic screening programs during the 1970s in order to analyze the potential risks of a 'genetic quarantine' of people with 'undesirable' traits or characteristics.