The Ethics of Gene Therapy Essay -- Genetics Science Papers

The Ethics of Gene TherapyFrancis Crick was quoted as saying, We used to think that our fate was in our stars. at present we know that, in large measure, our fate is in our genes. Over 40 years ago, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). From this a hot technique has evolved called gene therapy. Gene therapy was discovered in the 1980s a few years after researchers were already able to isolate specific genes from DNA. These techniques grow from the massive surge of ideas generated during the Recombinant DNA (rDNA) era. Gene therapy is baseally the repairing of genes to correct for diseases that result from a loss or change in our genetic material. It is hard to cut into the total effects of gene therapy, because we do not know if it should really be used? Who does it really benefit? And ultimately people can advantageously contemplate how it affects him or herself and their family. Therefore, to understand gene therapy some techn ical aspects need to be discussed. Technical aspectsDNA is present in the nucleus of cells and is the genetic learning of all organisms. The information of a human genome could be thought of in terms as an encyclopedia, the 23 chromosome pairs would be chapters, each gene a sentence, three letter words codons, which are spelled by each letter a molecular nucleotide--adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) (Elmer-Dewitt, 1994). A gene acts as a blueprint and if these were blueprints for a house and the measurements were off by a foot, it has a huge influence on its total structure. This is the similar for our bodies, if a slight alteration in our genetic information occurs like a mutation this could lead to a disease. D... ...tad. 1991. Principles of genetics. 8th ed. New York, NY John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Gorman, C. 9 Oct 1995. Has gene therapy stalled? Time p. 62-63.Henderson, C.W. 5 May 1997. Researchers use gene therapy to protect human cell from HIV. AIDS Weekly Plus p. 16-17.Henderson, C.W. 5 May 1997. Hopkins researchers have sex human gene therapy trial of kidney cancer vaccine. Cancer Weekly p. 29-30.Keenan, J.F. 20 Oct 1990. Human gene therapy and ethical advance? America p. 262-263.Macer, D.R.J. Shaping genes ethics, law and scientific discipline of using new genetic technology in medicine and agriculture. Obtained from the WWWhttp//www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/macer/SG14.htmlMeiser, C. Medical ethics symposium on gene therapy. Obtained from the WWWhttp//shsaa.org/Spectator/94n5/5gene.htmlMulligan, R.C. 1993. The basic science of gene therapy. Science 260926-932.