Persuasive Writing Paper: Gene Therapy

Imagine that one day your son and daughter were diagnosed with advanced disease and it is dangerous as long as it is not an experiment that you can try using gene therapy to preserve them. Even if this may not happen, it is a new technology and not funded by the hospital, so if you read this article you can understand it. Gene therapy is the process they use with healthy DNA or stem cells and damaged or infected versions to make them healthy again.

The premise of gene therapy is based on diseases - abnormal genes that modify their roots. There are basically two forms of gene therapy, one of which is called somatic cell gene therapy. Somatic gene therapy involves manipulating intracellular gene expression, which corrects the patient but will not do it for the next generation. This is a type of gene therapy currently being investigated in the Human Gene Therapy Institute and other laboratories around the world. Another form of gene therapy is called germline gene therapy, which involves genetic modification of germ cells and inherits changes to the next generation. For technical and ethical reasons, there is little (if any) research currently undergoing germline intervention.

Current gene therapy research focuses on treating individuals by targeting somatic cells such as bone marrow or blood cells. This gene therapy is not handed down to a human child. However, gene therapy can target eggs and sperm cells (reproductive cells), which makes it possible to transfer the inserted genes to future generations. This method is called germline gene therapy. The idea of ​​germline gene therapy is controversial. It can protect future generations of families from specific genetic diseases, but it may have unexpected long term side effects, which may affect fetal development in unexpected ways. People affected by germline gene therapy have not yet been born, so we can not choose whether to receive treatment. Because of these ethical concerns, the US government has not granted federal funds for research on human germline gene therapy.

Gene therapy has attracted scientists and non scientists all over the world in 2017, but there are good reasons for it. Unlike drugs and surgery, gene therapy changes the patient's DNA. Please know the cure. In an interview with the recent famous geneticist George Church, he predicted "gene therapy will be one of the most accurate and safest mechanisms we have".