reathe and digest normally and cuts a victim's life expectancy in half. The disorder itself is actually genetic, and is combated with a genetic treatment. The treatment for Cystic Fibrosis and other genetic diseases can be done without any surgery. (Gene Therapy and Cystic Fibrosis, pars. 1-8)
             The reason why surgery isn't necessary is because a patient can ingest something that is called a vector. This vector is a virus that scientists have found to be particularly effective depending on the application. For example, with Cystic Fibrosis, a virus that normally inhabits the lungs is used. The virus is crippled in that the harmful affects and the ability to reproduce are removed before the vector is introduced into the body. This way there is no potential for an outbreak of the virus. Once the vector is in place, the improved genetic code that it houses is released and it will then fix and replace the damaging genes causing problems. Once the vector has repaired a cell, new healthy cells will be produced through regular cell reproduction. This is a good thing because the changes instituted by the vector continue from one cell generation to the next. Also, if there happens to be a surge of cells with the harmful DNA to reemerge, the vector will still be present. The body will never be able to remove the virus that was originally introduced. (Meyers, par. 2)
             Gene therapy is also used in treatments for cancer, AIDS, and other terminal illnesses. By September 1999, nearly 300 new developments were underway for medical purposes. Of these 300, more than 200 were for cancer related treatments. (Meyers, par. 5) The major benefits of gene therapy over traditional medicine is that it is not physically intrusive, it works on the lowest possible level of the body, and it has a great deal of potential since it has not been nearly fully researched nor experimented upon.
             Those that oppose such genetic treatments usually...