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Morning News

Bioethicist Arthur Caplan Discusses Implications of Cracking Genetic Code

Aired February 12, 2001 - 9:36 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Less than a year after they completed a rough draft of the human genetic code, scientists are publishing those findings. The research into the so-called building blocks of life are expected to open the door for future breakthroughs in understanding and treating disease.

But mapping the human genome also raises some serious ethical questions. For example, there are concerns that genetic information could be used to discriminate against people in hiring or providing insurance.

Joining us now from Washington to talk about that is Art Caplan. He is director of the Center for the Bioethics, and also professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Kaplan, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

ARTHUR CAPLAN, BIOETHICIST: Good morning.

KAGAN: First help us assess this kind of the headline out of what both groups have found, in that we humans don't quite have as many genes as we might have thought we did.

CAPLAN: Fewer genes than we thought. We're more closely related to other animals, including some less lofty ones like fruit flies and mice, probably only double the number of genes that other creatures around us have. So a little humbling to see this come out.

KAGAN: So be kind to that worm or to that mouse you come across. That could be a distant relative.

CAPLAN: Might be your cousin.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

Meanwhile, interesting kind of the politics that's working here because you have the government group working, you also have the private group of Celera Genomics. Do you think that's helping this information come out faster than it would have?

CAPLAN: There's no doubt that the information has come out more quickly than if only the government project had been going on. There was a competition to get this done. And let's not kid ourselves. This is the most important announcement in biology in the past 40 years. When you've got all the genes arrayed before you in a rough map of human beings, you've got a lot of opportunities. It got accelerated because the two groups -- if you -- they were really in competition to see who was going to get the prize.

KAGAN: But the prize is our genetic code. So who actually owns and has a right to this information?

CAPLAN: Interestingly enough, I think little bits of our DNA, little segments of it, are going to be in private hands, in corporate hands, in the hands of pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies. We have not set up public policy. Congress didn't, the presidents have not, no international agreements to make it available for free to anyone who wants to use it. So it's going to be in private hands. And it's going to be up to those private companies whether they let researcher and, if you will, not-for-profit groups gain access. I hope they will. I think that's their ethical duty.

KAGAN: But what could that potentially mean? Could it mean that if you have money, you have the rights to a cure that comes from this information, but if you don't, even though it's inside your own genetic code, you don't have the rights to that?

CAPLAN: If we went to the drugstore today and got a pill, it's a one-size-fits-all thing: whatever you get for depression, or if you were getting treated for asthma. What these companies hope to do is design drugs that are targeted for individual people. And they're going to charge a pretty good price for it. So if this genetic information is in private hands, we can look forward to some staggering treatments that really are more effective than anything we've got now.

KAGAN: That's the good stuff.

CAPLAN: And probably a pretty good price tag.

KAGAN: That's the good stuff, but the bad stuff...

CAPLAN: That's the good news.

KAGAN: Also, who's going to decide what potential misuse could happen with this? Or, you know, what some person might consider a good use -- like an employer -- an employee might not think that that was such a great idea.

CAPLAN: I'd say there are really three areas to watch for problems. One is we still don't have a good law guaranteeing genetic privacy. DNA is all around. I hate to say it, but we kind of leave it on glasses and leave it behind when we sit in chairs. It's easy to get and people can find out sensitive information about you. We don't have a tough national law to protect genetic privacy. We also don't have any anti-genetic discrimination statutes. So if your boss wanted to give you a test, or your insurance company, and said, gee, you're at risk -- at risk of getting breast cancer or colon cancer, having a mental illness, they can. There's nothing to stop that right now. Probably the third area is I think we're all interested in kind of where we came from, who our biological relatives are. The genetic code can be used to classify us. Will we someday see genetic testing reported on the census, for example? I think we will.

KAGAN: Wow. And just real quickly as we wrap it up, today's announcement, how big is it in terms of what is to come? I mean, how much fine tuning? We're still very early in this research.

CAPLAN: Think of it as having a map of the Earth as seen from outer space. The gene map gives us the continents and the oceans, which you couldn't navigate from Los Angeles to New York using this map. We're going to fine tune it over the next five to 10 years. And I think you can look for an explosion of tests and cures 10 years from today.

KAGAN: A lot to learn, a lot of reasons to have you back to continue our discussion on another day. Professor Art Caplan, thank you so much.

CAPLAN: My pleasure.

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