Essay On The Pros And Cons Of Gene Therapy

The Pros and Cons of Gene Therapy
Gene therapy is a very controversial topic that has been discussed in the last five years and is being heavily studied to help cure cancer. Gene therapy is a technique aimed at treating genetic disorders by introducing the correct form of the defective gene into the patient’s genome (Dunlop et al., 2010).
There are two main groups of gene therapy and they are germ line gene therapy and somatic gene therapy (Baksh, 2007). Germ line therapy consists of germ cells being modified by the introduction of functional genes, which are ordinarily integrated into their genomes (Garbutt et al., 2011). DNA encodes the therapeutic gene and replaces the mutated gene so the new gene can treat the disease. Germ line therapy is very similar to somatic gene therapy with the exception being the therapy of somatic cells instead of sperm or egg cells.
Some of the pros of gene therapy are that it is only way of curing genetic disorders so it is our only hope for finding cures for such disorders. Once gene therapy treatment becomes safer and effective it could wipe out genetic disorders as cystic fibrosis, Parkinson’s disease and cancer completely. This is because gene therapy targets the reproductive cells of carriers of such genetic disorders so it is possible that any children the carrier goes on, gene therapy would free them of the defective gene (Ali et al., 1994).
Some of the cons of gene therapy are that it is still fairly a new discovery so we have not figured out completely how to safely use it on humans without harming them. With current knowledge there is no guarantee that the vector carrying the healthy gene will end up in the specific place it is intended so, there is a risk of causing even more damage...

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...the near future when gene therapy is perfected it is going cure these 500 people that die each year and completely wipeout cystic fibrosis.
Gene therapy is a very exciting new approach of treating genetic disorders. When gene therapy is perfected it will the medicine field and will revolutionize the way we treat cancer. Instead of dozens of chemotherapy treatments than can harm and destroy healthy cells, gene therapy is going to be used to completely get rid of genetic disorders and increase life expectancy (Meistrich, 1993). As scientists research more on gene therapy treatment and find a way to perfect it the possibilities are endless. The world we live in now full of diseases and genetic disorders that cannot be cured are going to be completely wiped out. No one is going to die because of cancer and people are going to live a much happier life.

Shivam Sardana