The present reflection refers to data obtained about the
social representations of genomic research and its
applications through interviews with legislators and
lawyers, biomedical researchers and civilians and the
review of scientific and legal literature in four Latin
American countries: Argentine, Chile, Mexico and
Peru.
Several issues are addressed: little access to prevention
and therapeutic methods, lack of equity in health
benefits, commercialization of gene sequences through
patents which leads to commercial exploitation of
underdeveloped countries, the possibility of physical or
psychological damage or genetic discrimination, the
possibility of genetic modifications or abortion for
eugenic reasons, the necessity of safeguarding
confidentiality, risks and benefits of the use of
transgenics and cloning, the necessity of legal regulation
to prevent the pathway towards genetic enhancement or
reproductive human cloning and of regulating access to
genetic information.
Using the method of content analysis of verbal
behaviour to evaluate the degree of anxiety and hostility
of subjects in relation to the Human Genome Project
(HGP) developed by Gottschalk and Gleser, an inverse
relation between levels of anxiety and level of knowledge
was observed which highlights the importance of
educating the population. Differences in the level of
hostility towards the HGP were also found among the
groups.Research funded by grants from U.S. Department of Energy award DE-FG02-02R 63435 and also through fellowships to students of the International Program of Ethics of Biomedical and Psychosocial Research, supported by Fogarty NIH Research Grant #D43 TW 06056