Human Gene Therapy Essay -- Genetics Science Biology Essays

Human Gene Therapy Imagine this, you have just married your college sweetheart this past summer. You have now been happily married for over a year and you find out that the two of you are going to be parents. So as the typical soon to be mom and dad so commonly do, the two of you start going to the doctor for checkups to make sure the pregnancy is running smoothly. Early in the pregnancy you hear the worst, your baby has a fatal disease. The two of you are terribly heart broken over the situation. You tell your doctor that abortion is out of the question because you do not believe in it. On the other hand the doctor hits you with the question, "What about gene therapy?" Unfortunately you and your spouse look dumbfounded at each other because you have no idea what the doctor just said. So, what exactly is Human Gene Therapy? Well, in the next couple of pages I am going to cover some of the basic ideas of human gene therapy, discuss some of the public debates, and wrap things up with my personal opinion. Gene therapy is basically genotypic pharmacology. This involves the use of factors which modify the genetic composition of a given cell or group of cells. As a result of the idea for human gene therapy, a new technique of treatment for many human diseases has been developed. The factors that contribute to the treatments are either gene products, or are capable of interacting with gene products, or have the ability to interact with gene products in an individual cell or a group of cells. The interactions of contributing factors to gene therapy success are extremely capable of regulating particular genes, which either directly or indirectly, leads to the cure of a disease. As a result of this interaction an eventual cure of th... ...e lifespan and population. So, I am going to leave you with these few words. Maybe the human race should be thankful for what we currently have and the limited time we have left on earth. To me a basketball game with no final whistle would have no meaning. So would immortality. References Rehmann-Sutter, Christoph "The Ethics of Human Gene Therapy." The Hastings Center Report, May 1999, v.29, 3, 43 Begley, Sharon. "Designer Babies. (altering unborn babies through gene therapy)" Newsweek, 9 November 1998: 61 (1) Friend, Tim. "Patient gets first MD gene therapy." USA Today 3 September 1999: A1 10/15/1999:http://www.boil.tsukuba.acjp/~macer/Papers/GTN95A.html 10/15/1999:http://piebald.princeton.edu/mb427/1997/students/therapy/main.html 10/15/1999:http://www.med.upenn.edu/ihgt/info/whatisgt.html 10/15/1999:http://www.med.upenn.edu/ihgt/info/topic1.html