Gene therapy is a approach to treating diseases by modifying a person's genes toward a therapeutic goal. Gene therapy is being researched for its possible use as not only a treatment for the diseases a certain patient already has, but also for its possibility to prevent the formation of diseases altogether. The premise of gene therapy is based on correcting a disease at its root; fixing the abnormal genes that appear to lead to certain diseases. There are essentially two forms of gene therapy, one of which is called somatic gene therapy. Somatic gene therapy involves the manipulation of genes in cells that will be corrective to the patient but not inherited to the next generation. The other form of gene therapy is called germline gene therapy which involves the genetic modification of germ cells that will pass the change on to the next gen
Despite all the promises of somatic gene therapy, germline gene therapy, could be the downfall to humanity. In the field of germline gene therapy, the egg and or sperm cells are injected with a new piece of DNA as an attempt to avert a disease that would have definitely arisen otherwise. Yet the most alarming element of Germline gene therapy is the major intent of it; to pass the genetic change to the offspring of the initial experimental zygote. The possibility for a slight miscalculation in a chain of those four little amino acids we call life, is far too likely and the results far to detrimental to humanity, if the error were to go unnoticed initially. Yet the scientific woes are not the end for questioning Germ line gene therapy, it poses several moral and ethical controversies as well. What is to stop science at simply treating di
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