The Human Genome Project began in the mid 1980's and was widely looked at within the scientific community and public press through the last half of that decade. In the United States, the Department of Energy, and the National Institutes of Health soon after, wer

As Thomas Lee writes, "the effort underway is unlike anything ever before attempted, if successful, it could lead to our ultimate control of human disease, aging, and death".

The Office of Technology Assessment and the National Research Council prepared a report describing the plans for the US human genome project and is updated as further progress in the basic technology occur.

Jonathan Glover argues for a "pragmatism of risks and benefits", writing that, "The debate on human genetic engineering should become like the on nuclear power: one in which large possible benefits have to be weighed against big problems and great disasters".

One significant element is the assertion that genetic engineering is radically different from any other kind of human medicine, and constitutes interference in a restricted area, trying to "play God".

As Robert Wright notes, "Biologists and ethicists have by now expended thousands of words warning about slippery slopes, reflecting on Nazi Germany, and warning that a government quest for a super race could begin, if genetic engineering ventures "too far".

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