Macer argued that the concept of genethics "should be stopped" and that what is needed instead is "a revival and renewed discussion of ethical values as society interacts with technology, and reassurance that scientists are responsible" (1993, p. 102). Society does not need a new ethics to cope with the impact of genetic technology.
Despite these objections, the term genethics is still in use and its development has received impetus from the Human Genome Project (HGP), the multi-billion dollar public-private, international initiative to map out the entire human genome begun in the 1990s and completed in 2000. Genethics was particularly fostered through the establishment of the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) program, under which the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health devoted 3 to 5 percent of the annual HGP budget toward examining such issues in relation to the availability of genetic information flowing from HGP. Specific areas of funding included the fair use of genetic information, privacy and confidentiality, stigmatization, conceptual and philosophical implications, and clinical and reproductive issues. Through this significant investment, ELSI became the largest bioethics program in the world and spawned similar endeavors elsewhere, often under the genethics moniker.
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