Struggles of Gene Therapy

Is there any right way, or wrong way, of wanting what’s best for your child? The parents of Rhys Evans were celebrating his 2nd birthday, which his family thought he’d never reach. Rhys was inherited with a disease that left him without an immune system. The treatment is to find a sibling whose bone marrow can be transplanted, so healthy cells can multiply and spark the immune system. However, Rhys is the only child, and if he did have a sibling it was a one and three chance of affecting the cure. His parents could offer their bone marrow, however this would be even a lower success rate, and the side effects could be more serious.

Rhys mother stated that “Gene therapy was our only real hope”, and with that being said the doctors extracted some of Rhys marrow, used a harmless virus to add working immune system genes to Rhys DNA. It was replanted a few days later, it was a success and his mother said, and “it saved his life”. Now, three other people with the disease called X-SCID, or X-linked severe combined immune deficiency have been treated. They were success stories also with the gene therapy Rhys had received. So the future looked promising for these children and their families.

All things came to an end when the news announced what everyone feared. A three-year-old child received the treatment in Paris when he was six months old. He developed leukemia, and the virus used to insert into his DNA was to blame. In result, the gene therapy treatment trials were put on hold, and are pending a full investigation. This is an ethical dilemma at ones finest. When applying Ross’s Ethical Principles one could say beneficence was the most prominent used in this case. The parents and doctors of these young children were helping to imp...

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...dless, some decisions have to be made on how far the possibilities may stretch. And therefore be made into laws in order to protect the future generations and us. The benefits of using gene therapy should not be over looked, for it has endless potential to make us free of disease. Thus will make the difference in life and death and our future generations lives. (Crystal schilling, 1998).

Bibliography

"Natural Law - OCR Religious Studies Philosophy and Ethics A Level." Web. 24 Apr. 2011.

"Controversies in Treatment Approaches: Gene Therapy, IVF, Stem Cells, and Pharmacogenomics | Learn Science at Scriptable." Nature Publishing Group: Science Journals, Jobs, and Information. Web. 24 Apr. 2011.

" Schilling, Crystal. "Gene Therapy." Gene Therapy (1998). 11 Feb. 1998. Web. 24 Apr. 2011.

Gene Therapy." NDSU - North Dakota State University. Web. 24 Apr. 2011