ABSTRACT
This chapter describes European Union funded research into women's perspectives on the ethical, social, and legal applications and implications of the human genome analysis. It draws attention to the gendering of policy-making and the differential impact on women of applied science in genetics. Women's views on the human genome analysis demonstrate factors that shape the construction of the boundaries between the public and private spheres and their significance in the context of gender. Women identify dilemmas and contradictions clustering around social or public versus individual or private interests. The legitimacy of the division into the public and the private are contested when considering individual choice, autonomy, and control as against state involvement. Values expressed as responsibility, plurality, and tolerance promote the importance of the acceptability to society of new developments. The relationship between genetic therapy and health care raises the issue of appropriate arenas for public policy.
