The Genome Project and Pandora`s Box -The Light and Dark of Genetic Research-

Abstract

In this article, while summarizing all the main problems involved in recent results of genetic science, I would first like to look into the topics that have social-ethical meanings. Then, as recent public interest and professional discussion have made implicit, I'll address questions of genetic determinism or reductive essentialism and focus on the complexity of the genes as an open system together with various other environmental factors. Furthermore values such as the sanctity of life and human dignity that have been the main supporting pillars in the ethical discussion about the negative aspects of genetic research, are not very clear ideas themselves in meaning and they will need to be relatively balanced with other values too. Then I'll focus on the very present desperate problem, which is that because of the gap in development between the genetic diagnosis and the genetic treatment, we can not help requesting the right not to know as well as the right to know about our own genetic information.