English 102
4 November 2013 Gene Therapy The ability that gene therapy gives humans, could easily be looked at as playing God. In simpler words could scientists be making human bodies survive deathly diseases, or are scientists just simply damaging future gene pools? Ethically speaking, are scientists improving bodies to save Gods people, or are scientists just trying to make Gods people perfect and in the end just damaging the bodies’ people inhibit. The amount of technology for gene therapy is bursting into a quicker pace day by day, with some thoughts though, is it going quick enough? Gene therapy is one of the most amazing advances in the medical field. Being able to know we can change ones genetic history is something out of the ordinary. Being able to change diseases could benefit our survival in the long run. The thought of being able to treat diseases with the hope of cures for such diseases as Cancer, AIDS, PKU, etc. should be thought of as a "God sent." There could be no thought of a superhuman as a result. It is just childish to think something like that can happen. With our genetic makeup causing no harm or pain, the line should be drawn to this point. Gene therapy is one of the most tremendously helping advances in the medical field. Just being able to think that it can help with genetic diseases and disorders is something out of the ordinary. The thought that scientists can help the human race survive these diseases and disorders is amazing. The ability to be able to treat these diseases and disorders is something that is God sent and is something people should be looking at in a good way. When it comes to ethical reasons, the arguments of making a superhuman, there could possibly be nothing in existence. People change looks through surgery, cosmetics, and gyms all the time. What would be the difference and plus why would anyone deny someone’s health? Gene Therapy is something that society needs to accept as a good thing, it should be allowed in the medical field, and needs to be open to all society when ready and safe because in the long run, it will only better our race. Gene therapy has such a potential for positive effects on the human race. Either way of using the two different type of therapies could be seen in a good way. When given an opportunity to change a disease or disorder, there is no doubt why any person shouldn’t step up to agree with it. The views on what the gene therapy is doing and what is being treated. Gene therapy should be used to treat diseases. The use of somatic gene therapy is more widely accepted than germ line therapy. People should have right to change a disorder or disease in a beneficial way, but not be able to change the genetic makeup of offspring Every year there are countless children being born with a genetic disease or disorder. These diseases can easily be aided with the help of gene therapy. One disease that is commonly found, with thousands of cases worldwide, is cystic fibrosis, which leads to a clogging of the lungs, and to problems with digestion and other functions. Even if there is no cure for cystic fibrosis, with the aid of the treatments, people with cystic fibrosis can live up to 25 years more. It might not be a lot but it can be a huge benefit in peoples lifes. Another well known disease, but rare one, is severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). SCID children with this condition have a defect in both copies of a gene which is required for the proper functioning of the immune system. The disease forces them to be kept in a plastic bubble to keep bacteria and germs out. They can be kept alive but who wants to live in a bubble their whole life? For little bacteria that would just keep us home in bed, would essentially kill them. Just like the other, there is no cure for it, but there could be treatments. The whole idea of gene therapy is to give someone with a disease a chance of living a normal life like someone without a disease would live. It has the potential to treat a lot of the diseases that the world has. Just thinking that scientists can help treat a disease is a huge advantage that far outweighs any disadvantages that people come to argue with. Those not up to date or knowledgeable to gene therapy are the ones to oppose against it. The ones who do not know much about gene therapy, are the ones to oppose it. In the future gene therapy could play an important role in the medical field. It could change the way we use medications and doctors. Who knows where it will take us, but seeing the potential it has to offer, it could be a new era in the way we see diseases. Gene therapy should be used to its fullest potential for the diseases that can be helped in humans. No matter who the person is, not determining it on wealth, race, religion and so on, should be able to get a hold of the treatments that gene therapy has to give. When talking about the different type of treatments, Somatic Gene Therapy comes into mind. Gene therapy should not be used to benefit an already healthy person. To make a human more attractive, athletic, or intelligent. If the science community, general public, and government set out limitations, this is probably the only way to draw a line on the treatments. It should be important that regulation should be a necessary component of gene therapy research and applications. The government should narrow who can receive this treatment, and restricts it to people that have serious genetic diseases. Hopefully the countries of the world cooperate to regulate the gene therapy research and application. The treatment should not be used as a cosmetic use or even worse, to help aid in the war. This therapy is limitless as scientists find more and more gene and their functions. Government regulators and scientist must approach these issues in a respectful manner and make sure they do not happen and find solutions for it. Gene therapy may be the only method to treat the gravely ill or prevent the onset of otherwise unavoidable illness. Individuals with family history of a disease could be screened to see if they hold the potential of a disease. If the individual had the potential for disease, somatic gene therapy may be used to correct the disease causing genetic sequence. For some people gene therapy sounds like the only hope they have. Gene therapy, somewhat more of somatic therapy can be less dangerous than most medical procedures. Gene therapy should be used again because unlike a lot of other medical controversies, gene therapy targets the disease not the symptoms. Instead of going through things like chemotherapy, gene therapy can take that out. Somatic therapy is a more positive outlook on the two different therapies. A Germ line therapy could potentially be dangerous in the long-run. Dangerous to the disease that is, if a family has a hereditary disease and it could be prevented from future generations, I feel that the use of germ line therapy would be beneficial if someone was given the opportunity to fix a horrible disease or disorder, why wouldn’t you do it? As for playing God, surely he would understand us stepping in on something that is taking away our loved ones and putting them in pain. With all the questions arising with gene therapy, it should still be used no matter what the circumstances. It will be something amazing and the talk of the future and people and knowing our human race someone will try and use this therapy as some sort of money scheme. As long as we draw lines as how far it can go, this could be the talk of the future. Gene therapy has the potential to be successful to be successful and become something coming in the medical field. For the people with disease with no cures, it could be something seem as God giving gene therapy as a cure. This has been going on for a while so it is not new. It could be seen as a leader in the twenty-first in medical history.