(Investigators' Abstract) This project seeks to determine the legal issues arising out of the program to map and sequence the human genome (""""""""Human Genome Initiative""""""""). Specifically, the project proposes to conduct two workshops to establish a Legal Research Agenda -- a detailed and concrete statement of the science and technology associated with the Human Genome Initiative and of the legal issues that have emerged or are likely to emerge as a result of the Initiative. At the first workshop (March 29-30, 1991), scientists familiar with and active in the Human Genome Initiative will present detailed descriptions of the Initiative, as well as its goals, methodologies, and expected results, in a setting that permits full opportunity for questions and discussion by thoughtful representatives of the legal, ethical, and social science communities. At the second workshop (May 17-18, 1991), the legal, ethics, and social science participants will make presentations on the legal issues raised as a means of instigating full debate on the questions by all of the participants, including the geneticists. The principal investigator will draft the Legal Research Agenda, based on the recorded interchange at the workshops. The broader, long-term objective of the project is to use the Legal Research Agenda and the personal contacts developed between the scientific and legal participants as the basis for a subsequent series of in-depth investigations of specific substantive legal issues.
