This project will delineate the major ethical, legal and social issues accompanying the use of genomic information to enhance normal traits in individuals and families, and to identify the precedents that best illuminate those issues for policy-making purposes. The study will use a traditional policy analysis approach to generate specific positions on five issues of genetic enhancement policy issues: 1) Do the human subjects of clinical research on genetic enhancement interventions require special protections? 2) How should the professionally acceptable limits of genomic services be drawn?

In their previous project, these investigators examined the ethical and legal issues raised by the prospect of using the products of human genome research for enhancement purposes. This work identified three critical challenges to the development of social poicy in this area. First, most interventions that can be used for enhancement are likely to be initially developed and approved for therapeutic use.