Gene Therapy

Unless we wish to live in a world that is controlled more by scientists than personal free will and desire, the world must draw a definite and unyielding line between somatic cell gene therapy and germline gene therapy, and strongly support the primary, and denounce and attack the latter.

Somatic gene therapy is incredibly promising and despite being extremely costly, has the possibility to save thousands upon thousands of lives. The possibilities of somatic cell treatment to solve single gene abnormalities, which cause hemophilia, Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, and sickle cell anemia, are astounding. This is critical, because not only do these programs need massive funding in order to do research and conduct clinical trials for this relatively new science, but also because ultimately it will be this industry that will bring gene therapies to large patient populations. Yet the medical world and more importantly the pharmaceutical industry and the governments of the world need to more openly accept and support the concept of somatic cell gene therapy in order for it to truly advance.

Despite all the promises of somatic gene therapy, germline gene therapy, could be the downfall to humanity. Yet the most alarming element of Germline gene therapy is the major intent of it; to pass the genetic change to the offspring of the initial experimental zygote. Gene therapy is the most promising yet possibly detrimental medical field being studied. The possibility for a slight miscalculation in a chain of those four little amino acids we call life, is far too likely and the results far to detrimental to humanity, if the error were to go unnoticed initially.