Although we still don't have clear answers to those issues, we are now looking deeper, at questions that should be important to Congress, state legislators, regulators, and judges. That I'm male provides information about my genes, a standard blood test provides some more, and my family history still more. Over the last few years Stanford has been the site of intensive working groups that are investigating genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility and Alzheimer's disease. The Law School has been intimately involved in that work. Stanford law students participated in both.
Genetic tests result from human genetics research.
Researchers are exploring a different path to finding those genes, through the creation of massive databases of medical and genetic information on hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people and looking for associations between genetic variations and disease. This approach holds out new possibilities for discovery, but raises new questions about human subjects research. These are largely new issues to human subjects research. They are issues of law, of science, and of justice. John Barton has helped lead the exploration of the legal implications of many new technologies, from the control of nuclear weapons to the development of computerized databases.