The Ethics of Gene Therapy: Balancing the Risks Essay

Gene therapy has saved many lives but there also have been other cases where the treatment has not helped cure the patient’s genetic disorder and they have died. Take Jesse Gelsinger for an example. He suffered from an X linked genetic disorder of the liver so he was injected with an adenoviral vector carrying the corrected form of the gene (Couzin & Kaiser, 2005). This treatment was not a success and Jesse ended up dying four days later. He suffered from a massive immune response that was triggered by the use of the adenoviral vector that was injected in him to transport the correct gene into his cells, which caused him to have multiple organ failures and his brain to die.

Although the treatment is costly and only available in clinical trials, gene therapy has treated some of the most known diseases, like Parkinson’s disease. People who are for gene therapy believe that it will change our world by getting rid of sickness. They think of a world without cancer and Parkinson’s disease. However, the people against gene therapy see a world with technology overtaking civilization. In their eyes, they think that gene therapy is wrong because of the side effects and the concept behind it. In addition, when thinking about gene therapy, the opposers conjecture that changing the genetic makeup of someone affected with genetic illness is wrong. I, on the other hand, believe that changing the genetic makeup of someone that is ill and suffering is exceptional because it is to their advantage. All in all, gene therapy is a heavily debated topic, but I believe that gene therapy can change our world in a positive

Gene therapy is defined as the medical replacement of defective genes in living human cells; its aim is to replace the activity of a defective gene by activating a dormant gene which has a similar function (Wheale & McNally, 212). Under gene therapy comes the politically controversial Human Genome Project, a fifteen-year, $3 billion federally-funded biology program. The goal of the project is to isolate the defective gene on the chromosomes which comprise the human genome (Fletcher, 2). In this manner, the Human Genome Project may be able to rid the cancer-ridden genes from human DNA, thereby curing cancer permanently. The project has been the focus of much scientific and political controversy over the past few years for its possible ramifications are extensive to all of human existence.

Scientists have projected there to be many benefits to gene therapy in the near future. For starters, gene therapy could cure diseases like cancer, aids, as well as thousands of genetic disorders (Will). Sara Goering, a philosopher concerned with biomedical ethics, argues throughout “Gene Therapies and the Pursuit of a Better Human” that germline therapy could mean disorders would be eliminated for good, leading to the relief of pain for many. It poses the possibility to eliminate human suffering at the root, and in turn, better humanity. Throughout society, people already focus on ‘enhancing’ their kids through vaccines and vitamins. Kids are out through surgeries because they are believed to be what is best. Goering points out that because of people’s willingness for treatments like this, there really are not many moral concerns prevalent (Goering 403-40). For many diseases, treatments that people already feel comfortable with will not work as effectively (“List”). Currently, there are no real cures for genetic disorders besides replacing defective

A thorough risk assessment requires a consideration of both risk and protective factors. Bland, Renouf, Tullgren (2009) state that when good clinical assessment instruments are available, they should be used, combined with ‘actuarial’ knowledge about the factors associated with particular risks. However, the majority of risks are difficult to predict accurately, and importantly, approaches will always need to be combined with a professional (clinical) judgement based on the unique circumstances of each situation ( Bland, Renouf, Tullgren, 2009 p. 144).

In 1990 the first gene therapy procedure gained approval and a four-year-old girl with SCIDs disease was finally able to fight off a simple cold. She is now able to live a normal life with the help of continued treatment of gene therapy. Although gene therapy is an innovative and ideally favorable procedure when it comes to treating diseases, cancer, or inherited disorders, it is still a delicate procedure and is continuously studied to insure it is not only effective but also and most importantly safe. In order to insure the safety of patients a gene therapy drug must get the approval of the FDA before becoming available, as every drug must do. Since gene therapy is still very experimental; there are only a few gene therapy drugs that have been approved by the FDA to treat patients. However, on August 30th, 2017 history was made when the FDA approved Kymriah, the first CAR-T cell therapy drug to be available in the United States. Kymriah is a one-time treatment for patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, it was developed through the research collaboration of Novartis and the University of Pennsylvania, and it is manufactured for each individual patient. Kymriah’s only drawback would be the price tag of $475,000 for a course of treatment, however Novartis plans to wave the fee for patients where Kymriah is not successful.

Some people argue that heart gene therapy may result to very rewarding consequences or very deadly consequences because the success rate is not 100% assured (Sherlock & Morrey, 2002). Although this technology is set to benefit many heart disease patients through introduction of the missing protein, there are chances that the treatment may fail for some patients. Consequences are fatal if the treatment does not work because malfunctioning enzyme will be present and this may result to death. This therefore brings the question, is the risk worth taking? For the patients that this treatment works, the consequences are

Scientists and doctors alike have long been looking for cures to diseases like cancer. For years now, there have been countless fundraisers to cure this and cure that. And yet, it seems as if there's never any progress. There may be a brief headline in the news about a new discovery, but they always seem to never go anywhere. Maybe the problem is that they've been looking in the wrong places. Maybe the cure doesn't lie on a medicinal level, but instead the genetic level, in genetic engineering and gene therapy. Direct manipulation of an organism's genome can be used in gene therapy as a means to alter genes, causing both positive and negatives effects as well as discussions about the ethical boundaries of modern

The way we currently view the newer methods of gene therapy or genetic engineering in humans makes it seem as if these technologies are subpar and unsafe to use. Many experts have called change to the genome in a human unethical and a breach of nature’s course. This is an extremely hypocritical way of looking at health technology. With modern medicine we can keep a human alive, well beyond the years they should live. On a hospital bed, a patient could survive in a coma for years, yet the patient has no say in whether they want to be let off the machines or not. Genetic engineering isn’t some random roll of the dice procedure, there are sophisticated, state of the art technologies, completing the procedure and running the math to see the accuracy. In an article about the promise that genetic engineering to combat genetically inherited diseases, Kyle Peterson explains, “Crispr is much more precise, as Ms. Doudna explains in her new book, ‘A Crack in Creation.’ It works like this: An enzyme called Cas9 can be programmed to latch onto any 20-letter sequence of DNA. Once there, the enzyme cuts the double helix, splitting the DNA strand in two. Scientists supply a snippet of genetic material they want to insert, making sure it ends up matching with the cut strands. When the cell's repair mechanism kicks in to fix the cut, it pastes in the new DNA”(Peterson). This system has been proven through tests as safe and is

There has always been a decently sized gap between science and ethics. And the gap might be getting wider and wider as science takes off on its new explorations of the human body, while ethics attempts to fight back. There is no telling where the world of science is going. As long as it keeps expanding, there are going to be more and more risks taken throughout their experimentation. Gene editing is a very serious but amazing thing

While, gene therapy is a promising treatment option for a range of diseases, there are still a number of unwarranted risks associated with the technique, where further study is

Gene therapy, the experimental strategy that requires the use of genes to prevent and cure diseases is a fairly new technique, yet it is one which has shown steady advancements. The journal article “Gene therapy clinical trials worldwide to 2012—An update” sets out to present analysis and summaries of clinical trials that have been performed worldwide. Authors Samantha L. Ginn, Ian E. Alexander, Michael Edelstein, Mohammad R. Abedi and Joanne Wixon dive into some of the 1843 gene therapy trials performed in 31 countries. Analyzing geographical distribution of trials, searching for indications of mishaps in trials, speaking on diseases which have been tested in trials and a general introduction to gene therapy are some of the points within the article.

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

Gene therapy is all about changing genes, often at a nucleic base level, in order to overcome obstacles pertained to medicine for the treatment of disease. It is a relatively new method of therapeutics due to the technological reliance and the intricate level of understanding needed of the human genome, which has only recently been overcome. Few approaches are available today, and many more are currently under investigation as scientists invest in the practicality of therapies whilst considering ongoing ethical debates.

Gene therapy is one way in which genetic engineering is necessary. Consider what gene therapy could do, for example. The Genetics Home Reference states that In fact, it could cure many diseases that are not known to be curable by other methods. Gene therapy could help cure cancer, viral infections, and hereditary disorders, and more (Genetics Home Reference). Gene therapy could cure diseases caused by mutations and is necessary for any problems that exist or may arise involving human mutations. And mutations will only increase with time. Additionally, gene therapy could also eliminate genetic diseases from babies even before they are born just like in Brave New World (Brooks; Huxley 110-111). Unlike what some people say, it would be immoral not to take advantage what gene therapy could do.