James D. Watson, the first director of the Human Genome Project, initiated the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Program (ELSI) which has funded a number of studies into the implications of human genetic engineering (along with a prominent website on the history of eugenics), because: In putting ethics so soon into the genome agenda, I was responding to my own personal fear that all too soon critics of the Genome Project would point out that I was a representative of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory that once housed the controversial Eugenics Record Office.
James D. Watson, o primeiro director do Proxecto xenoma humano, iniciou o Programa de implicacións éticas, legais e soiales (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Program), que financiou varios estudos sobre as implicacións da enxeñaría xenética humana (canda un importante sitio web sobre a historia da euxenesia), porque: Ao situar a ética tan axiña na axenda do xenoma, estou dando resposta ao meu propio temor persoal de que demasiado pronto os críticos do "Proxecto xenoma humano" sinalarían que era un representante do Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory que unha vez albergou a controvertida Eugenics Record Office.