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Plain Talk About the Human Genome Project: A Tuskegee University Conference on its Promise and Perils and Matters ofRace. Edited by Edward Smith and Walter Sapp. Tuskegee University, 1998. Pp. 292. $14.95 (paper). I highly recommend this book. Here you will find a detailed analysis of the science and of the ethical, social, and legal implications of the $3 billion Human Genome Project. A valuable Appendix includes a Primer on Molecular Genetics, Case Studies on Hereditary Colon Cancer, Useful Websites, and a Glossary. There are also guidelines for students and the general public. I know ofno other book that serves as a complete compendium on what is probably the most important scientific project of this century. The editors have done a magnificent job in compiling the symposium and in encouraging the speakers to cross-reference complementary subjects; therefore, unlike many conference symposia , this volume reads like a single or coauthored publication. A concerted effort also was made to publish the material in a timely manner, and the price is quite reasonable for students. In addition to being a valuable resource for the public and experts in the field, the book should be required reading for college courses in biology and bioethics. The President of Tuskegee University, the editors, and many other participants referred to the appropriateness of conducting such a conference at Tuskegee University , the site of the vilified syphilis experiment by physicians of the U.S. Public Health Service from 1932 to 1972. In the Foreword, the President states: "Race still counts in American society. The past has some warnings for the Human Genome Project and for all ofus who will live in the wake of its findings in the next century." Proper blame was accorded to the U.S. government for sponsoring the syphilis project , which has been rightfully castigated in numerous publications. Even so, no one referred to the classic book on this experiment, Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment byJames H.Jones (Collier Macmillan, 1981), or to the excellent television documentary, Susceptible to Kindness: Ms. Evers 'Boys and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study by David Feldshush (produced by the American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco ) . These works demonstrated that the syphilis project would not have been possible without the collaboration of African American physicians, administrators, nurses, and community workers at Tuskegee. On the other hand, it probably would have been unthinkable for African Americans then to challenge the U.S. Public Health Service or the regional Public Health Service in Alabama. The author of Bad Blood, James Jones, also instigated the investigation of the Tuskegee syphilis program, which led to its dissolution. It was also not mentioned that a similar syphilis experiment had been performed in Norway many years earlier because it was not known if the mercury and arsenic therapy then used for syphilis was efficacious. On the other hand, the curative properties of penicillin become known while the Tuskegee project was in progress, and therein lies the tragedy: penicillin was not given to the Tuskegee subjects, nor were the subjects and families informed by the authorities in Washington or Tuskegee that therapy was available for this disabling communicable disease. The philosopher Santayana cautioned about not learning from history. Robert F. Murray, Jr., Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Genetics, and Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics at Howard University, oudined the participation of African American community groups in the fiasco of sickle cell screening and misinPerspectives in Biology and Medicine, 42, 3 ¦ Spring 1999 453 formation in the community in the 1970s, as well as the role of African Americans in passing mandatory sickle cell screening laws—which led to discrimination by the Armed Forces, employees, schools, and insurance companies against persons with sickle cell trait. Today, however, we still have not learned from history. The University of California -Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, supported by the Department ofEnergy (a cosponsor of this symposium and the Human Genome Program) was recently sued by employees of the Laboratory (Norman-Bloodsaw, et al. v. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, et al. 98 CD.O.S. 901, 1998) for a program that selectively screened African Americans for sickle hemoglobin and repeatedly tested only African Americans and Hispanics for syphilis, without their...

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