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The ethics of gene therapy: balancing the risks
Conclusion on gene therapy
The ethics of gene therapy: balancing the risks
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The Dangers of Gene Therapy Treatment "What's the worst that can happen to me? I die, and it's for the babies," said Jessie Gelsinger as he left for the hospital to receive gene therapy treatment. (Stolberg) People risk their lives everyday in the name of science. One such science that people have recently been drawn to is gene therapy. Although, gene therapy may be new and exciting and it may be helping to find cures to diseases we only dreamed of curing, we have to remember it is dangerous. It needs to be done with much supervision. Every new step we take in the advancement of gene therapy should be thought over because the consequences could reach farther then we ever believed they could. There are so many dangers of the techniques used that can lead to consequences as serious as death. The government imposes many guidelines, and it needs to stay that way. The biggest dangers, however, may be in what is to come. General dangers of the techniques of gene therapy are a large concern. One problem is that the new gene may be inserted in the wrong location in the DNA. Experiments with rats showed this could cause cancer or other damage. In addition, when DNA is directly injected into a tumor there is a chance that the DNA could be introduced by mistake into reproductive cells, producing changes in offspring. The consequences of this are discussed in more detail later on. Another disturbing thing to think about when pondering the safety of gene therapy is the fact that once gene therapy has taken effect it cannot be stopped and is irreversible. It is not like drugs, the genes cannot be stopped from multiplying. Viral vectors use viruses to transport a modified gene into a patient's body. They are right now be... ... middle of paper ... ...e Therapy." National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature. Feb. 2000. 28 Mar. 2001 Kelley, Kevin. "How Safe is Gene Therapy." Gene Therapy 2000. Feb. 2000. 2 Apr. 2001 Li, Julang. "Mechanisms Involved in Targeted Gene Replacement in Mammalian Cells." Genetics. Vol. 156, 809-821. Oct. 2000. Lopez, Gerald Gabriel. "Gene Therapy: the Scientific vs. the Societal" The Resource. Jan. 1998. 10 Apr. 2001. . Ruggles, Amanda. "Ethics of Human Gene Therapy" 1996. 10 Apr. 2001. . Schneider, Norman. "Gene Therapy: Are Clinical Trials Safe?" USLaw.com. Mar. 2000. . "Sometimes things fall through the cracks: The death of Jesse Gelsinger and what it means." 2 Apr. 2001. . Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. "The Biotech Death of Jesse Gelsinger." New York Times, Sunday Magazine, Nov. 1999. Vogel, Shawna. "Gene Therapy Hearing Begins." ABCNEWS.com. Jan, 2000.
Web. The Web. The Web. 14 Apr. 2013. The. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/technology/news/2009/03/09/5745/eight-reasons-to-applaud-action-on-stem-cells/> Keiper, Adam, and Yuval Levin.
Zielinski, Sarah. "Henrietta Lacks ' 'Immortal ' Cells." Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, n.d. Web. 11 Nov.
In this paper, I will argue that genetic therapies should be allowed for diseases and disabilities that cause individuals pain, shorter life spans, and noticeable disadvantages in life. I believe this because everyone deserves to have the most even starting place in life as possible. That is no being should be limited in their life due to diseases and disabilities that can be cured with genetic therapies. I will be basing my argument off the article by “Gene Therapies and the Pursuit of a Better Human” by Sara Goering. One objection to genetic therapies is that removing disabilities and diseases might cause humans to lose sympathy towards others and their fragility (332). However, I do not believe this because there are many other events and conditions in society that spark human compassion and sympathy towards others.
Medical News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/147142.
Gene therapy works by introducing new and functioning genetic material to damaged genes to help it function and to produce beneficial proteins. If a gene is inserted directly into a cell, it usually will not function. So to complete this task, a vector, a modified virus is used to carry and deliver the new gene. There are two different categories of vectors than can be utilized in this process; recomb...
20. D. Prockop, "Stem Cell Research Has Only Just Begun" (Letter), 293 Science 211-2 (13 July 2001)(citations omitted).
Gene therapy works in three ways; it works to replace a missing or defective gene with a normal one, replace a faulty gene so that it will function properly and it works to activate and deactivate a gene, allowing it to “switch” on and off. Gene therapy is done by the deliverance of a gene to a cell via a carrier, or vector, such as a virus. Scientists lean more towards using a virus because they can seek out particular cells and transfer pieces of deoxyribonucleic acid into them. Scientists also take advantage by deactivating their harmful characterizes and modifying them to carry particular gene into designated cells. After gene therapy is done, the genes can then stimulate the production needed for standard functioning, allowing that gene to return to its previous normal state. Therefore, if a patient were to be in the beginning stages of cancer, gene therapy would seek out the cancerous gene and replace it with a healthy one and minimizes the disease from
In September 14, 1990, an operation, which is called gene therapy, was performed successfully at the National Institutes of Health in the United States. The operation was only a temporary success because many problems have emerged since then. Gene therapy is a remedy that introduces genes to target cells and replaces defective genes in order to cure the diseases which cannot be cured by traditional medicines. Although gene therapy gives someone who is born with a genetic disease or who suffers cancer a permanent chance of being cured, it is high-risk and sometimes unethical because the failure rate is extremely high and issues like how “good” and “bad” uses of gene therapy can be distinguished still haven’t been answered satisfactorily.
...Restricted After Gene Therapy Death. The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/052500hth-gene-therapy.html?scp=9&sq=FDA%20jesse%20gelsinger&st=cse
... middle of paper ... ... The new gene is introduced via vector, because if a gene is inserted directly into a cell it usually will not function the desired way.
From the perspective of some activists against gene therapy, they feel as though if it were to be used in a way to enhance one's own abilities. It could possibly have a destructive outcome especially if applied to an unborn/newborn child. These activists believe that if possessed in the wrong hands it may cause ethical issues such as altering a child's basic height, weight so forth. This type of treatment is called germline therapy, however the Government does not allow the research to be funded, so it is all only theory as it has not occured yet. But in factuality the cells that are implanted inside a patient's body may cause dozens of issues, as shown in the statement “Several studies have already shown that this approach can have very serious health risks, such as toxicity, inflammation, and cancer.” (GHR) With these issues it will cause even more problems, especially if someone is being treated for cancer. If they were to either retain the cancer or develop a new possibly worse type of cancer it will affect not only the patient but it will also halt the research of gene therapy which in turn will slow down the process for finding a safe
High profile adverse events resulting in disproportionate media attention have prevented a greater difficulty for the field, with the death of Jesse Gelsinger in a trial of gene therapy for ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency undermining public trust of clinical research in the US. There is a danger that the gene therapy field may have become too risk-averse in response to these adverse events, and that this could manifest as fewer trials that take longer to commence. In the context of a research environment that is increasingly turning to the developing world for the expedient conduct of clinical trials, it is imper...
Sherlock, Richard. "Bioethics." Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. Ed. Carl Mitcham. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 193-200. Student Resources in Context. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. source 23
... and our futures. If gene therapy can counter such predispositions, it will become a very important part of the armory with which we combat disease. No longer, would someone that is born with a genetic disease or who develops cancer have the inability at the chance of a normal life. Gene therapy is the gift of life, ___. It has generated great expectations in society, in the last twenty years, already over 1,500 gene therapy protocols have reached the clinical stage for cancer and cardiovascular diseases. In the next twenty years, gene therapy will undoubtedly be an effective alternative to___ efforts and enable treatments of many diseases that over ____. Thus, gene therapy provides modern medicine within a new therapeutic tool that gives virtually unlimited possibilities to develop better, more efficient therapies that were once previously for incurable diseases.
Before it can be perfected, several studies have been shown that there have been serious health risks, such as toxicity, inflammation and cancer, since the technique is relatively new it, medical researchers and regulatory agencies are working to ensure the that gene therapy is a safe procedure. The ethical background on gene therapy is harshly surrounded around on things such as high cost and affordability depending on the severity of the disease and if only the wealthy will be able to afford the treatment, another is who decides which traits are normal and which constitute a disability or disorder. The biggest controversy is if people should be allowed to use gene therapy to enhance basic human traits such as height, intelligence, or athletic