In sum, current ELSI research suggests that, despite a history of work in research ethics attempting to clarify distinctions between research and treatment, problems fueled by the uncertain boundaries of these concepts will continue to haunt biomedical research. These conceptual uncertainties will be compounded by the scientific and clinical uncertainties of much of the information that genomic research could propel across this boundary. These uncertainties constituted the second major recurrent theme at the ELSI Congress, and seem certain to animate research ethics debates even more widely in the future.
