Ethical Issues of Genetic Research Essay

Gene therapy is a very controversial topic that has been discussed in the last five years and is being heavily studied to help cure cancer. Gene therapy is a technique aimed at treating genetic disorders by introducing the correct form of the defective gene into the patient’s genome (Dunlop et al., 2010).

The Goal of the Human Genome Project is to obtain genetic mapping information and to determine the complete sequence of all human DNA by the year of 2005. The project started in 1990 and 180 million dollars are being spent on it annually. This adds up to a total of over 2 billion dollars for the 15 year budget. Of this 2 billion dollars budgeted, 5% is spent annually on the ethical, legal and social issues. This report focused on some of these issues.

Fifty years after the idea of gene therapy was first proposed, gene therapy has become a possible treatment for a couple different diseases. Before this treatment was approved, some serious unfavorable effects were found in clinical trials. However, these effects fueled more basic research in order to improve, in efficiency and safety. Gene therapy has been used for patients with blindness, neuromuscular disease, hemophilia, immunodeficiencies, and cancer.

In order to eliminate this, implementing policies on genetic research must be upheld containing the extent to which society is willing to allow the change in the population. Scientific experimentation will forever grow. The possibility to completely diminish science and research is slim. A solution to this would be enacting rules and regulations. These regulations will limit to only testing on humans for necessary causes such as disability or disease. If a life remains at risk, the genetic screens should proceed. However, if for cosmetic reasons, the Human Genome Project needs to draw the line. Extra funding allow this solution to take off. “[T]he Human Genome Project will likely pay for itself many times over on an economic basis,” (“Human Genome Project Completion: Frequently Asked Questions.”). If in startling economic standing, why not put more of an effort towards ethical considerations and regulations? With this solution, insurance companies can now back patients regardless of potential risks. Children and adults will also experience diversity. Exposure to varying personalities and handicapped individuals can increase. This solution inevitably benefits everyone. It will teach society to embrace one’s self and flaws. Flaws can transform into more respectful attributes. A solution that benefits everyone does the greatest amount of

With our current society rapidly advancing in both the technological and medicinal world, many new treatments have been born that can be used to treat genetic conditions that regular antibiotics and surgeries simply have no positive or progressive effect. Gene therapy is when a newly developed gene is transferred, or introduced, to an already existing gene, it is the attempt to treat one’s genetic disorder at the molecular level and could significantly improve the human population and provides hope to people with disabilities. Gene therapy goes straight to the source and alleviates symptoms of the disorder. The gene receiving this new development is in some shape or form, mutated, or defective. If the gene therapy is a

Gene therapy is a technique that allows for the modification of genes to treat or prevent disease and may become a viable way for doctors to treat a disorder without the need of drugs or surgery. This technology is still experimental, being only about three decades old with the first successful human trial occurring in 1990 when Dr. William French Anderson treated Ashi DeSilva for Adenosine deaminase deficiency (ADA deficiency), which is a genetic, metabolic disorder which causes immunodeficiency. Researchers are testing several approaches to gene therapy, which include replacing mutated, disease-causing genes with a healthy copy of the gene, inactivation a malfunctioning gene, and introducing new genes into the body that will help fight diseases. Over the last two decades, about 2,000 trials have been conducted or approved and future prospects for this technique are encouraging, include the engineering of human genetics in ways that may prove controversial and difficult to predict. This paper will explain how gene therapy works, what it has accomplished so far, its future and current hurdles, and what this all means for our species.

Akudo Ejelonu writes, “The medical industry is building upon the knowledge, resources, and technologies emanating from the Human Genome Project to further understanding of genetic contributions to human health....Genetics is playing an increasingly important role in the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of diseases” (What is the Human Genome Project-Why Is It Important To Society par.10). According to this evidence, the Human Genome Project has opened doors for scientists to better understand the use of gene therapy for humans. Genetics is now playing an important role in curing, monitoring, and diagnosing diseases that can make someone very sick. With gene therapy it can save lives and help cure the world of its deadly diseases. “Genetics Home Reference” states, “ Hundreds of research studies (clinical trials) are under way to test gene therapy as a treatment for genetic conditions, cancer, and HIV/AIDS” (Gene Therapy Experimental Techniques, Safety, Ethics, and Availability par.15). The “Genetics Home Reference” is insisting, gene therapy is on its way to becoming a treatment for anything and everything. It is on its way to becoming a full time treatment for diseases that will later be cured because of frequent gene therapy sessions with sick patients. All of the hundreds of research that has been done on this subject is just a grasps an understanding of how it all works and how it changes the world in a positive way. Larissa Hirsch states on page three, “Scientists hope that the human genome mapping will help lead to cures for many diseases and that successful clinical trials will create new opportunities”(Gene Therapy and Children par.4). Larissa Hirsch is stating that the Human Genome Project plays a big role in gene therapy. The Human Genome Project is opening doors for scientists that have successfully performed medical trials when it comes to treating

According to Kenneth Pakenham, Jo McEntire, and Jessica Williams (2013), in “Making Connections” Gene therapy and genetic tests are long experiment by scientists to find out specific genes are related to fatal diseases and birth defects. Many severe diseases depend on the gene type. When genes are known genetic tests for many genes will be available. Despite several challenges for gene therapy, genes treatment is possible identifying their defective genes tests.

As time progresses mankind continues to explore inward to discover more about our species and further our knowledge on the genetic blueprint of a human being. The Human Genome Project did just that. Through one of the greatest projects in history, we have already been able to further our knowledge on humans and map out all of the human genes (genome), and there is much more to come. But with this new knowledge comes a plethora important ethical questions regarding if what we are doing is right. A lot of ethical issues are questioned in areas such as in vitro fertilization, genetic counseling, prenatal testing for developmental defects, abortion, prenatal surgery, and care of extremely premature or severely handicapped infants.

Gene therapy is a rapidly developing technology first used in 1990.1 It involves the use of modified DNA inserted into an organism with a missing or mutated sequence. There are two methods of delivering this correction into the patient’s cells. In the viral method, a virus containing the vector with the corrected form of the gene, infects the cell naturally. Adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, lentiviruses, and retroviruses can all be used. They each utilize a different method of delivery and form of DNA. Adeno-associated viruses and lentiviruses are the easiest forms to construct.2 The corrected DNA faces many obstacles to gene expression and ultimately protein production. The viruses must target and enter the correct cell, avoid

“As a Christian, but also as a scientist responsible for overseeing the Human Genome Project, one of my concerns has been the limits on applications of our understanding of the genome. Should there be limits? I think there should. I think the public has expressed their concern about ways this information might be misused”, Francis Collins an American physician-geneticist (BrainyQuote, 2001-2016). A genome is an organism’s complete set of genetic instructions. Each genome contains all of the information needed to build that organism and allow it to grow and develop (Engagement, 2015). Uproar of ethical questions spreads throughout the world concerning who would help financially, it being a “genetic modification” that would ruin the natural system.

Genetic research has furthered our understanding of the human genetic makeup and has created the potential to transform medicine. This potential is not just limited to medicine, but the potential to further research and monetize the human genetic makeup. Through gene patenting, the monetization of genetic material can provide for a financial incentive for researchers and institutions to further innovation. The developments in the ability to patent genes and the laws surrounding gene patents has raised concerns of the ethical and medical issues as highlighted in authors, Michael Crichton’s article “Patenting Life” and John E. Calfee’s article “Decoding The Use of Gene Patents.” Both authors (1) share similar views on the ethical concerns and research results. (2) Calfee differs by explaining further that

To begin, we chose this visual seeing that gene therapy is worthy of discussion due to the numerous applications it can have on treating disease, which explains why it is a rapidly growing area of study and debate in the world of Biology. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the possibilities and limitations of gene therapy in our analysis. First, the question of whether the story of our visual is possible in real life is simple, no. James Bond is a fictional movie series and in reality, the duties of a spy agent are much more mundane than the action we see on the screen, involving mainly paperwork. Particularly, we will focus on the gene therapy component of the movie, which is also fictitious. In the movie, the doctor running the genetics clinic explains, “first we kill off your bone marrow to wipe the slate clean, then they introduce new DNA from healthy donors.” The bone marrow is where white blood cells (which are a major component of the immune system) develop.

Biotechnology interventions are used to advance human brains and our future to the extreme. The process of genetic engineering is very unpredictable and dramatic that it will have a major effect on its environment. Human genetic manipulation is considered unethical and dangerous for the most part. Human genetic alteration is illegal in many countries, but it is used in some places to cure gene diseases. The process of changing the genetic DNA of when a baby is born can be passed down the line of the persons. Swapping bad and unwanted genes for a better one is part of the process. There are many potential advantages gained from this operation as well as some dangers. Considering the ethical implications of the gene enhancement the result might cause a gene problem. The advanced technology application can make a huge different especially improving the quality of a human being by fixing an unwanted and inheritable gene defects. Many people are affected

If a treatment is implicated before the child is born – germline gene therapy – he or she could lose all trace of that defective gene, and therefore wouldn’t pass the disease on to future generations. In somatic gene therapy, treatment is conducted when the patient is an