What Are The Pros And Cons Of Gene Therapy

Human Biology- Gene Therapy

Gene therapy is something everyone may have heard of but may not know the specifics of how it works, what it may offer to our future and what the pros and cons are to the therapy. In a nutshell, gene therapy is a procedure that is performed where genes are inserted into existing cells to prevent and possibly cure various diseases. The new gene can alter the way the cells behave by destroying the mutated version to modify its effects or by replacing a faulty gene. The main target of treatment in gene therapy are genetic disorders (Better Health, 2017). Gene therapy is still in its experimental phase and scientists are not yet sure of not only what all it can do, but what long-term effects treated patients may

Though scientists developed safer methods for injection such as giving the patient’s immune suppressants before the procedure or delivering viruses to cells outside the body, gene therapy was reconsidered and believed to be inhumane to experiment on humans. Some people wondered if it was right to alter an individual’s genes with such an unpredictable outcome while others considered the fact that due to the expensive nature of a gene therapy procedure, scientists may be developing a procedure that is only available to the wealthy (NIH, 2018). Scientists, while acknowledging Jesse’s death and the large expense of a gene therapy procedure, argue that gene therapy has many benefits and could be evolved in a way to benefit all people once more is known. A large benefit that is consistently argued is if scientists could have the means to research and make gene therapy possible, the future may hold the ability to fix genetic diseases in developing embryos. If gene therapy were allowed to be practiced to success, scientists could not only identify genetic diseases in babies but now take it a step further and inject a gene to cure the child so the baby would be cured and survive (Lewis,

While some patients may not be concerned with the long-term consequences due to an already poor quality of life, new findings are warning they need to worry of the effects it will have on their future children. Because gene therapy is designed to permanently replace a malfunctioning gene, there is a looming risk the transferred gene may eventually rebel or pass on devastating mutations to the coming generations