Gene Therapy is a relatively new form of treatment, targeted at those who suffer from various debilitating Genetic disorders. It is an advanced type of medicine, and one that is still being trialled, so, at the moment, it is only being used as a last resort in the treatment of certain patients. The aim of Gene Therapy is to give people who have certain genetic malformations the opportunity to combat these, without having to submit to dangerous surgeries or strong drugs. This is a remarkable medical discovery, and holds the ability to heal many illnesses that we label as terminal, like AIDS, cancer and Cystic Fibrosis, increasing sufferers quality of life, if not eliminating the disease entirely.
In context, there are 350 million people around …show more content…
To begin with, Gene therapy has been praised for offering treatment options to the 10% of people in the world who are eligible to undertake this form of treatment, to rid themselves of a certain disease. It also gives people hope. Twenty years ago many diseases Genetic Diseases were considered permanent, now, this idea is changing. With the odds of a baby being birthed with a genetic disease being 1 in 33, the idea that we can fix a disease that would have a debilitating effect on their life is astounding. Another pro stems from the fact that Gene Therapy relies heavily on technology and advancements made in that field. This means that, as the technology needed becomes more affordable and more research is commissioned, the cost of administering treatments such as these would drop, making them cheap enough so that most people in need of treatment can be cured. However, it has been criticised for being unethical, as it involves altering specific gene structures, and could actually encourage and normalise these behaviours. Gene therapy is also very expensive at the moment, making it an unrealistic treatment option for many working class …show more content…
One side may argue, and with good reason, that they deserve the chance to rid their bodies of horrendous genetic diseases, or prevent their children from suffering a similar fate. However, many people do believe that making gene therapy a easy to access medical treatment will have consequences in the very near future. For starters, they argue that altering a human body - the way which you were born - is unnatural, and interferes with basic moral and ethical principles. They also think that this field of science will further develop into something where people can alter their and their offspring’s genetic makeup at their whim, creating a ‘perfect’ society, where some humans become far superior to others, both physically and