Gene Therapy: the Danger of Enhancement

Gene therapy: Increasing risk I. Introduction Gene therapy has the potential to revolutionize modern medicine. Gene therapy techniques have just begun as medical treatments and there are still a number of problems that must be solved before gene therapy reaches that possibility. However, gene therapy may become a reality in the future, at this time the ethical problem surrounding gene therapy will be pushed to the forefront of medicine.

How do researchers judge what kind of diseases and characteristics require gene therapy? Unfortunately, the difference between gene therapy to enhance desirable features such as eye height or color and gene therapy for disease genes is not clear. No one thinks that diseases that cause pain, disability and potential death are good candidates for gene therapy. However, there is a slight difference between what is considered "illness" (such as pygmy chondrogenesis) and "features" which are regarded as healthy people (such as short stature). Even if gene therapy modifies potential socially unacceptable features or improves ideal characteristics, it may improve the quality of life of individuals, but gene therapy may enhance traits Ethicist who worries about that, thereby promoting the increase in discrimination against people with "bad" characteristics

To date, in clinical trials of tolerable gene therapy, somatic cell therapy using disease-causing genes has been performed. However, many ethicists say that as more genes are found that result in different traits, with improved feasibility of germline gene therapy, "gene landslides" in the future gene therapy experiments I am worried that it may have an effect. Specifically, there is concern that receiving germline gene therapy may lead to gene therapy to enhance heredity. As scientific progress adequately recognizes the validity of these new treatments and must provide ethical guidelines for the advancement of gene therapy research, gene therapy that promotes germline gene therapy and trait enhancement The unresolved argument about the problem must be continued. The main participants in the open discussion came from the fields of biology, government, law, medicine, philosophy, politics, and religion.