Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Human Genome Project

The Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project that had one goal: to complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings. A genome is a collection of all your genes and DNA. Every human cell has about 4 thousand genes. The Human Genome Project has many advantages and disadvantages to society. It can help us advance in medicine by early detection of genetic diseases and agriculture by creating more disease resistant animals and plants. However it can also be detrimental, for instance, it may give parents a chance to pick and choose characters their children will inherit.

The Human Genome Project can allow parents to determine their children 's genetic makeup. DNA is a continuous thread through all living things. From DNA you can tell if

An example of this can be seen in Tay-Sachs disease. Infants with this disorder typically appear normal until the age of 3 to 6 months, when their development slows and muscles used for movement weaken. Affected infants lose motor skills such as turning over, sitting, and crawling Tay sachs can be traced down to just 4 atoms. Since genes create protein, fat is supposed to be dissolved in the brain. In this disease, the protein does not work so the fat builds up in the brain, swelling it and eventually crushing critical brain cells. One advantage of the human genome project is it could help us develop tests to determine if parents will pass on genetic diseases and maybe find a way to prevent that. It can act as an early warning system so doctors and scientists have a chance to stop it, treat it, and eventually cure it. Technology has immensely decreased the time it takes to decode genome. The government said it would take 15 years to decode human genes. Greg Ventor challenged this notion and said it would take 2 years. The DNA being mapped came from randomly chosen people and put on the internet; the goal was