Investigators' Abstract): A full-day public education forum on the Human Genome Initiative, to be held in April 1992, is being planned as part of the Choices and Challenges forum series at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The Choices and Challenges series was established in 1985 at this institution to provide public audiences with clear, accurate, and up-to-date information about recent scientific and technological advances and to explore important social and ethical issues related to these advances. The 13 programs already conducted have been highly successful, attracting large regional audiences - composed of the general public along with scientists, clinicians and other health-care professionals, lawyers, ministers, educators, business people, and the press - and reaching national audiences by satellite transmission of the plenary session to other educational institutions. Medical, health service, and teaching organizations grant professional credits to their members who attend. The series has won several awards and been widely recognized for its work. The one-day forum on the Human Genome Initiative is designed with three separate components: tutorial and briefing groups, a plenary session that will be teleconferenced nationally, and a post- plenary session discussion. The tutorial groups will provide a basic scientific introduction, background on potential applications, a history of the genome project, and an overview of ethical and religious aspects. The plenary session will feature talks by scientists with differing views on the genome project and speakers discussing historical, social, ethical, and political issues. The local program will conclude with in-depth discussions involving the plenary panel and the audience. Forum videotapes, newspaper articles, and public service programs will foster continued consideration of the genome project.
