Archive Site Provided for Historical Purposes
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Program
Human Genome News, November 1992; 4(4)
The topic "How Should Insurance Companies Use Genetic Information?" was featured at the first annual Conference on Ethics and Technology held May 8-9 at Southern Oregon State College (SOSC) in Ashland. According to organizers, the conference received very positive reactions from the public and has led to statewide interest in establishing (1) an intercollegiate faculty advisory board of bioethics to foster informed discussion about emerging ethical issues in technology and health care and (2) a southern Oregon human genome network to distribute information to the professional and lay communities about Human Genome Project goals and objectives.
About 100 people attended the meeting, which was hosted by the newly formed Oregon Honors Consortium comprising Portland State University, the University of Oregon, Western Oregon State College, and SOSC. The Oregon Scholar, an annual consortium publication devoted to scholarly work on important social themes, will feature selected student papers resulting from the conference.
Presentations at the meeting were made by Eric Juengst (NIH National Center for Human Genome Research), Jude Payne (Health Insurance Association of America), Paul Billings (Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center), and Michael Garland (Oregon Health Sciences University). Each presentation was followed by student responses and public discussion.
Gregory Fowler, Honors Program Director, said that the SOSC Churchill Scholars Honors Program had prepared the students to take leading roles in the conference and public forum. Having spent the spring term studying the Human Genome Project on their home campuses, participants welcomed the opportunity to exchange ideas and to work closely with the four visiting experts.
The conference was supported by the Ethics and Technology Lectureship Program of the GTE Foundation, the Oregon Council for the Humanities, and the Southern Region office of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Oregon.
Reported by Gregory Fowler
Southern Oregon State College
The electronic form of the newsletter may be cited in the following style:
Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v4n4).
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international 13-year effort, 1990 to 2003. Primary goals were to discover the complete set of human genes and make them accessible for further biological study, and determine the complete sequence of DNA bases in the human genome. See Timeline for more HGP history.
Published from 1989 until 2002, this newsletter facilitated HGP communication, helped prevent duplication of research effort, and informed persons interested in genome research.
