bioethical aspects of the new eugenics

With the advances in biotechnology and in the Human Genome Mapping Project, the ability to manipulate the DNA and perform gene therapy has increased and raised some concerns. The new eugenic theory is one of them. The concept of eugenics first appeared in the late nineteenth century1, as a theory of the improvement of the human race. It nearly disappeared after World War II2 but is now returning with new theories and ethical debates. The purpose of this study is to present some considerations regarding contemporary and widespread technological advances in assisted reproduction. We bring attention to the relations between assisted reproduction and a possible new eugenic policy, stressing the relevance of the matter and discussing some of the implied ethical issues. We do not intend to conduct a comprehensive study on the subject, but to provide some considerations that may contribute to further debate. A literature review was conducted focused on the ethical, bioethical and legal aspects of eugenics. In addition, some media coverage on the current use of the above-mentioned technologies was also consulted.

Identification and Characterization of Novel Human Endogenous Retrovirus Families by Phylogenetic Screening of the Human Genome Mapping Project Database

ABSTRACT Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) were first identified almost 20 years ago, and since then numerous families have been described. It has, however, been difficult to obtain a good estimate of both the total number of independently derived families and their relationship to each other as well as to other members of the familyRetroviridae. In this study, I used sequence data derived from over 150 novel HERVs, obtained from the Human Genome Mapping Project database, and a variety of recently identified nonhuman retroviruses to classify the HERVs into 22 independently acquired families. Of these, 17 families were loosely assigned to the class I HERVs, 3 to the class II HERVs and 2 to the class III HERVs. Many of these families have been identified previously, but six are described here for the first time and another four, for which only partial sequence information was previously available, were further characterized. Members of each of the 10 families are defective, and calculation of their integration dates suggested that most of them are likely to have been present within the human lineage since it diverged from the Old World monkeys more than 25 million years ago.