Chapter Five: Arguments For and Against Gene Therapy
While some people think that gene therapy is a great discovery that will cure many diseases, others think it is risky with unknown long terms effects and we should avoid it to avoid any bad consequences. The public debate around the use of gene therapy begin when clinical trials of gene therapy started long time ago. Since gene therapy deals with changing the genetic makeup of the body, there are many ethical and social issues surround the use of gene therapy.
In one hand there are many people in the public who holds thoughts supporting the use of gene therapy. One of the strongest public arguments for gene therapy is that it will end suffering from many diseases by finding treatments for these disease. For instance, when a genetic disease is inherited within a family, the family individuals can undergo genetic screening to know if they carry the faulty gene for that disease. If they do so, they can undergo gene therapy and cure that disease without suffering. Even if this looks a great opportunity to end suffering from certain disease, there are some ethical issues surrounding genetic testing and gene screening. Bioethics think that a parent who test the genetic composition of their fetus might want to abort that child if he tests positive for certain disease. This will increase the rate of apportion. Also, other bioethics think that the high costs of gene therapy may makes it available only for the rich people to use. Another argument for gene therapy, is that it targets the cause of the disease not the symptoms, which makes it the best among other general practices.
On the other hands, Some people argue against the use of gene therapy. Since gene therapy deals with changing the genetic makeup of the body, there are many people think that using gene therapy scientists are trying to "play God" by manipulating the genetic composition of the human being. They think that even though it can produce good effects like eliminating diseases, it can also produce devastating effects because we do not know the complexity of the human being enough to play with it and manipulate it. Another argument against gene therapy is the fear that some might use it to enhance physical traits like beauty and intelligence, which will give some people more life opportunities than others.
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Interesting post. I agree that fear of the unknown scares away a lot of people that could otherwise potentially benefit from gene-therapy.
ReplyDeleteThe power of uncertainty is unfortunate in cases such as gene therapy. It is such a shame that we have to be worried about people using and abusing such great technology for purposes outside of curing medical ailments.
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