With recent interest in the possibility of mass screening for cystic fibrosis by the Human Genome Project of the National Institutes of Health [C. Anderson, Nature, 348:569, 1990], another ethical issue--of equal importance to those raised in the essays but undiscussed in them--comes to mind.
H.R. Colten has focused on the implications of gene therapy techniques for cystic fibrosis. In the context of the recent advances made in gene transfer approaches by groups led by M.J. Welsh [FASEB Journal, 4:2718-2725, 1990] and by J.M. Wilson and F.M. Collins [Cell, 62:1227-1233, 1990], Colten asks [New England Journal of Medicine, 322:328-329, 1990]: "... if current studies of the molecular pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis yield, as anticipated, novel therapies that extend the quality and span of life for those with cystic fibrosis to the age of 40 or 50 years from the current median of slightly more than 20 years, will elective abortion ...
