ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the legacy of Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) and Ethical, legal and social aspects (ELSA) programs, considering them as an instrument of governance, focusing mainly on the United States. It reviews the history of the US ELSI program, then turns to the rise of "post-ELSI" visions that emerged in the twenty-first century. The proposal to sequence the human genome also faced critics who worried about the problems that might emerge if the enterprise were successful. To many, the applications of human genome research looked like a social and ethical minefield. In this context, James D. Watson's commitment to instituting an ethics program offered assurance that the Human Genome Project would not neglect the societal dimensions of genomics. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of institutionalized ethics programs as sites of "constitutional" change in the governance of knowledge and polities, after examining the debate about the purposes, achievements, and limitations of ELSI and ELSA programs.
