Gene therapy should be justified when a person suffers from a long term disease such as diabetes and a disease that could cause death such as cancer. Long term diseases should be justified for gene therapy because the person who suffers from the disease will suffer for a long time and they may want to shorten their expected lifespan due to the pain. Diabetes is a disease in which your blood sugar levels are too high. Insulin is a hormone that helps the glucose get into your cells to give them energy. Type 1 diabetes is where the body does not produce enough insulin. In type 2 diabetes, the body does not produce enough insulin or does not use the insulin efficiently. When your body does not have sufficient insulin, the glucose stays in your blood (Diseases, n.d.). The risk of getting type 1 diabetes is increased by certain variants of the HLA-DQA1, HLA-DQB1, and HLA-DRB1 genes. They belong to the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex. The HLA complex helps the immune system by differentiating the body’s own proteins made by viruses and bacteria. Type 1 diabetes is also known as an autoimmune disorder as the immune system starts attacking the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. By attacking the cells, the body produces lesser insulin which therefore causes diabetes. Scientists has found a way to eliminate daily insulin injections for people with type 1 diabetes. They had created insulin-producing cells that help to normalize blood sugar levels as well as the regulation of the glucose metabolism in diabetic rats. It works by signaling the injected DNA to produce insulin when the glucose inducible response element (GIRE) senses the glucose level in the body increase after a meal and such (Gene therapy for type 1 diabetes aims to eliminate daily insulin injections, 2017).
Terminal illnesses should be justified for gene therapy because terminal illnesses will result in death after a short period of time as it is incurable. Hence, if gene therapy could potentially cure cancer, it should be justified as there are patients who are unsure of how are they going to spread the news to their loved ones know that they will die soon. Scientist has invented new gene therapy methods to treat many different kinds of cancers. Suicide gene therapy is where cell suicide inducing transgenes are introduced to the cancer cells (Paul Zarogoulidis, 2013). Oncolytic Virotherapy uses replication competent viruses to destroy cancer cells without damaging other cells (Stephen J Russell, 2014). Anti-angiogenesis is where targeted drugs inhibits the members of vascular endothelial growth factor which causes the tumors to stop growing as the vascular supply is blocked (Reynolds, 2014). Therefore, gene therapy should be justified when a disease will affect one’s life long term or when it’s a terminal illness.
Designer babies is a way where gene therapy could be abused. Designer babies are babies who had their genes edited artificially in in vitro fertilization to change their traits. These traits includes gender, appearance, intelligence, diseases and personality. The baby’s embryo undergoes a screening which involves a process known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to examine defects in the DNA. The baby could also have its mitochondrial DNA given to it from a third party which is intended to prevent mitochondrial diseases. The main disadvantages includes the termination of embryos and it could create a gap in society between normal humans and designer humans, only the rich can afford it and possible damage to the gene pool. But it has advantages such as reducing the risk of genetic diseases and hereditary medical conditions, increased life span and also preventing the next generation of family from getting any possible diseases (Designer Babies Pros and Cons | Gene Therapy | Genetics Engineering, n.d.).
Another way gene therapy could be abused is by doping. Gene doping is where DNA is inserted into an individual to enhance one’s athletic performance. This could lead to unfairness in sport events such as Olympics as they are genetically enhanced and would naturally win against people who aren’t enhanced (Pray, 2008). It can cause high risk to healthy people it is meant for those very sick individuals, nearing their end of life.
Laws for designer babies such as banning the use of gene editing to edit appearances should be implemented as the editing of genes in human embryos could cause a bridge between normal humans and genetically modified humans where the genetically modified humans would think they are superior due to being aesthetically better looking. Hence, gene editing of human embryos should be limited to an extent where it’s solely used for the purpose of preventing future health issues.
Laws for doping have been implemented by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to prevent the use of drugs in competitions. WADA has a list that is updated annually that consists of the substances and methods that are prohibited in competitions to provide fairness. Gene doping methods that has been listed by WADA includes the transfer of polymers of nucleic acids or nucleic analogues or the use of genetically modified cells (World Anti-Doping Agency, n.d.).
Yes, I support human embryonic gene therapy but only to a certain extent. Human embryonic gene therapy should only be used for potential health issues that could be caused from the defects in the DNA. By finding and fixing defects in the DNA during the embryonic stage, it could help to extend the life span of the child as well as reduce the amount of health issues and sufferings that the child might face in his life. By editing the DNA in embryos, it is possible to make the child resistant to diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, HIV, malaria or influenza. This would greatly improve quality of life of the child. Fixing the defects in DNA could also cause the future generation of families to be free of the hereditary diseases. But I disagree with the editing of appearance, gender, intelligence and personality as it could cause a gap in society due to the genetically modified humans being superior in terms of aesthetically, personality and intellect wise. This would mean that the genetically modified humans would forever be stepping down on the normal humans. It would also be morally and controversially un-right as everyone is supposed to be unique in their own way. By editing the genes of the child’s appearance, this wouldn’t be unique anymore as it is selective. This could also make the ‘perfect’ human being which they would naturally be attractive to the opposite sex and giving no chance for the normal humans to find a life partner.
In my opinion, Singapore should be researching in the field of human embryonic gene therapy as people who have defects in their DNA don’t occur in some countries, but rather anyone in the world could have its DNA faulty including the people living in Singapore. Singapore should not only research and produce future solutions in embryonic gene therapy for Singapore, but also to the world as this issue is a globally affecting disease. Therefore, Singapore should be researching and giving its research details to other researching companies in other countries to help enhance the lives of the future generations.
References
- Designer Babies Pros and Cons | Gene Therapy | Genetics Engineering. (n.d.). Retrieved from FutureForAll: http://www.futureforall.org/bioengineering/designer-babies.html
- Diseases, N. I. (n.d.). Diabetes. Retrieved from MedlinePlus: https://medlineplus.gov/diabetes.html
- Gene therapy for type 1 diabetes aims to eliminate daily insulin injections. (2017, July 11). Retrieved from School of Medicine and Public health, University of wisconsin-madison: https://www.med.wisc.edu/news-and-events/2013/july/gene-therapy-for-type-1-diabetes/
- Paul Zarogoulidis, K. D. (2013, November 27). Suicide Gene Therapy for Cancer – Current Strategies. Retrieved from National Center for Biotechnology Information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3842193/
- Pray, L. A. (2008). Gene Therapy In Sports: Gene Doping. Retrieved from Nature: https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/sports-gene-doping-and-wada-764
- Reynolds, N. S. (2014, January 31). Anti-angiogenic therapy for cancer: current progress, unresolved questions and future directions. Retrieved from National Center for Biotechnology Information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4061466/
- Stephen J Russell, K.-W. P. (2014, 1 10). ONCOLYTIC VIROTHERAPY. Retrieved from National Center for Biotechnology Information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3888062/
- World Anti-Doping Agency. (n.d.). What is prohibited | World Anti-Doping Agency. Retrieved from World Anti-Doping Agency: https://www.wada-ama.org/en/prohibited-list/prohibited-at-all-times/gene-doping
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