ASHG human genome committee report. The human genome project: implications for human genetics.

The Human Genome Project will impact significantly on all branches ofhuman genetics, from the most basic research to the most practical clinical applications. The project also has social and legal implications that will impact mostly on human geneticists involved in patient care and genetic counseling. To assess this impact and to advise The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), the society formed the Human Genome Committee in the spring of 1990. At its first meeting in October 1990 the committee drafted a letter to Dr. James Watson, Director of the National Center for Human Genome Research. The letter, approved by the ASHG Board of Directors and sent from Dr. C. Thomas Caskey, then president of the society, and Dr. Ronald G. Worton, chairman of the Human Genome Committee, expresses support for the U.S. genome effort and raises some issues that are of concern to the human genetics community. The texts of this letter and of Dr. Watson's response are printed below. As will be seen from Dr. Watson's letter, the genome project has shifted considerably over the last year or two and already recognizes some of these concerns. The genome effort now includes support for generation of markers that are useful in the study of genetic disease, analysis of expressed sequences that will be available as candidate genes for genetic disease, and direct support for the study of the legal and social aspects of genome research. This shift is a subtle one but an important one for human geneticists, and it ensures that the concerns of the human genetics community are being heard. In the months ahead the ASHG Human Genome Committee will solicit for the Journal short articles that will provide updates on various genome projects around the world. The texts of the two letters follow: