The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international effort to map out the human chromosomes, pinpointing the location and details of all the genes and interconnecting segments. The term genome represents an individual's total genetic material, those chemical segments which control the activities of cells and human heredity. The HGP, simply stated, aims to identify the DNA sequences that determine each organism's characteristics.

The first stirrings of the HGP in the United States began in the mid-1980s. By 1990, a much more ambitious research program had taken form, including similar research projects in the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Germany and Italy. The overall mapping and sequencing efforts are coordinated through an international body called the Human Genome Organization, or HUGO.

The Human Genome Project has numerous implications. On the one hand, further understanding and mapping of human genetics could lead to the development of...