The Pros And Cons Of Human Gene Therapy

Children of the Future Germ Line Therapy is viewed as an ethical and legal issue relating to the use of biotechnology to alter a child’s DNA during the embryotic stage of conception. This topic also relates to the screening of embryos to find possible disorders and taking the advantage of that knowledge and “designing” a child without physical or mental deficiencies. As defined by Bionet, “designer babies” is a term used by the media relating to the fear it has over genetically altering embryos so as to gain “desirable or cosmetic characteristics”. This is not the intended use of InVitro Fertilization or Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis which are both party of Human Gene Therapy. Gene Therapy is the use of therapeutic drugs to combat genetic illnesses. Germ Line Therapy is morally right, but should not be legally required. It should be encouraged and facilitated, but people would be free to reject genetic enhancements.

I believe that Germ Line Therapy and its likeness should be legal because of its ability to combat illness before it can begin and it is also an efficient way to fight against every genetic disease. It is a topic that has scarcely been addressed, but people’s fear of the unknown is what drives them away from gene therapy. There are two major fears. The first is the fear that the gene therapy could have an unforeseeable side-effect. This is of course unreasonable because before clinical trials can take place, there are series of criteria it has to meet and the side-effects would be known far before clinical