Muscular Dystrophy

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Muscular Dystrophy

It is only recently that medicine, biology and even health care have become not only a primary concern of society but also one of the central focuses of mainstream media. Indeed it is rare that a day goes by without an article on these topics on the cover of newspapers such as The New York Times. Whereas this type of information used to be reserved for people in the field, daily program's such as CNN's Your Health have brought the science and the debates around it to the center of our society. This essay shall focus on one of the most talked about, common and painful genetic disorders. After explaining what the symptoms and causes for muscular dystrophy are we shall reflect upon the moral, ethical and practical debates that surround the technology being developed for the prevention, screening and curing of the disorder.

The term muscular dystrophy is used generically to encompass several muscular disorders present at birth and probably all genetically inherited. These cause progressive weakness, disability and ultimately death which occurs in adolescence from secondary infections or intractable congestive heart failure (Complete Home Medical Guide, Pg 636-637). From a clinical point of view there are at least six major forms of the disease. Although from a clinical point of view there are differences between the different types, they all share the same pathological findings (Textbook of child neurology, Pg. 826). Duchenne dystrophy is the most severe and probably the best known (Complete Home Medical Guide, Pg. 637), it will also be the one studied in this essay.

The initial complaint in most boys with muscular dystrophy is a gait disturbance. This always happens before the age of 5 and usually before t...

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... W.B. Saunders Company, 1997), Pg. 182

Giovanni Naso, "Giovanni Naso's muscular dystrophy page", http://www.rtmol.stt.it/users/gnaso/inherit.html

Emery, Alan E. H., Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), Pg. 57

"Gene therapy's ups and downs", Science News (October 28, 1995, Pg. 284)

"Muscle genes used for therapy of muscular dystrophy and other diseases", The Economist (September 10, 1994, Pg. 103)

"First attempt to treat muscular dystrophy with cell injection set", New York Times (May 2, 1991 Pg. 1A)

"Gene therapy for dystrophy shows promise", Wall Street Journal (August 19, 1993, Pg. B1-B2)

"Muscular Dystrophy could soon succumb to gene therapy", New Scientist (March 28, 1992, Pg. 24)

"Gene Therapy--Promises, pitfalls and prognosis", The New England Journal of Medicine (September 28, 1995, Pg. 871-873)

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