Gene Therapy
Gene therapy is a approach to treating diseases by modifying a person's genes toward a therapeutic goal. Gene therapy is being researched for its possible use as not only a treatment for the diseases a certain patient already has, but also for its possibility to prevent the formation of diseases altogether. The premise of gene therapy is based on correcting a disease at its root; fixing the abnormal genes that appear to lead to certain diseases. There are essentially two forms of gene therapy, one of which is called somatic gene therapy. Somatic gene therapy involves the manipulation of genes in cells that will be corrective to the patient but not inherited to the next generation. The other form of gene therapy is called germline gene therapy which involves the genetic modification of germ cells that will pass the change on to the next gen
In the field of germline gene therapy, the egg and or sperm cells are injected with a new piece of DNA as an attempt to avert a disease that would have definitely arisen otherwise. Yet the scientific woes are not the end for questioning Germ line gene therapy, it poses several moral and ethical controversies as well. What is to stop science at simply treating disease, when it could help to regulated hair color, eye color, skin color, genetic or inherited intelligence and physically superior body types. What is to stop science from engineering human beings, superior in every manor, which could then be sold off the rich and elite in order to serve the already self perpetuating system. Could not a division form between man, separating those engineered, and those natural? 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.
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Acceptance Essays
