Abstract

In Italy the public support for the Human Genome Project was interrupted in 1995. The article shows that in the Italian public opinion the discussion on the Humam Genome Project was part of the general refusal of the scientific researches about life. The text criticizes the ethical and philosophical arguments prevaling in the discussion. The arguments are the expression of an anti-scientific attitude typical of the ideology of Italian Catholicism. All the governments in the last twenty years have agreed with this ideology for electoral calculations: a possible explanation of the cuts to the public funds for biological researches.