Case Law School Receives $773,000 NIH Grant To Develop Guidelines For Genetic En

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Case Law School Receives $773,000 NIH Grant To Develop Guidelines For

Genetic Enhancement Research

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=42331

A Case Western Reserve University law professor has been awarded a

$773,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop

guidelines for the use of human subjects in what could be the next

frontier in medical technology - genetic enhancement.

Maxwell Mehlman, Arthur E. silge Professor of Law, director of

the Law-Medicine Center at the Case Western Reserve University School

of Law, and professor of bioethics in the Case School of Medicine,

will lead a team of law professors, physicians, and bioethicists in a

two-year project to develop standards for tests on human subjects in

research that involves the use of genetic technologies to

enhance " normal " individuals - to make them smarter, stronger, or

better-looking.

" Over the past half-century or so we have developed elaborate rules

protecting human subjects in medical testing, " Mehlman said. " The

problem is that the rules were all designed with therapeutic goals in

mind. The question is, are these safeguards appropriate to govern

testing for non-therapeutic enhancements, where the measurement and

valuation of the benefits is different from therapeutic testing? "

The project's specific aims are to:

* Identify the differences between genetic research performed for

therapeutic purposes and research performed for enhancement purposes.

* Determine the conditions under which it would be ethical to conduct

genetic enhancement research using human subjects.

* Determine whether existing rules meet the ethical conditions for

performing genetic enhancement research, and if they don't, recommend

changes to the existing rules.

The project is the first major research grant received in connection

with the Center for Genetic Research Ethics and Law (CGREAL) at Case,

which is one of four university centers recognized by the NIH for

excellence in work on the ethical, legal, and social implications of

the Human Genome Project. Mehlman is a research coordinator and

director of public policy for CGREAL.

" We are very pleased and proud that the NIH has chosen to award this

grant to Professor Mehlman and the Law-Medicine Center to begin

exploring new issues in health law and bioethics, " said Gerald

Korngold, dean and McCurdy Professor of Law. " Among the reasons that

the Law-Medicine Center is so highly regarded is that it undertakes

important new research like this. "

Mehlman said the need for, and importance of, developing rules for

enhancement research is growing rapidly, thanks to the ever-

increasing use of gene-based diagnostic and therapeutic

technology. " It's obvious that many of the genetic-based techniques

used for diagnosis and treatment can also be used for enhancements, "

he said.

He noted that substances such as human growth hormone and

erythropoietin (a substance which controls the body's production of

red blood cells and can be used to enhance athletic performance) are

already available. " Given that these technologies are already being

developed, if we don't have legitimate, approved ways of conducting

research it will just go underground, like steroid use in baseball,

where players are essentially acting as their own guinea pigs, "

Mehlman said.

An additional reason for developing guidelines governing genetic

enhancement is that their absence may discourage institutions from

conducting formal research.

Other members of the research team include:

* Berg, professor of law and bioethics

* Fishman, assistant professor of bioethics and sociology

* Quinn , assistant professor of nursing

* Juengst, associate professor of bioethics

* Kodish, MD, the F.J. O'Neill professor and chairman of the

Department of Bioethics at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation