The Ethics of Gene Therapy

Detecting whether an individual has the capacity to develop a specific disease during their life and being able to link the disease to a specific chromosome and ultimately the gene responsible is done by genetic testing. Genetic testing is basically done by cutting a piece of DNA with restriction enzymes and inserting them into a plasmid and finally analyzing the gene. Once a gene is located and defined as the cause of the disease, scientists can then start to develop a plan of action for gene therapy. There are three sequential steps to gene therapy: first, the partial removal of a patient’s cells, second, the introduction of normal, functional copies of the gene via vectors to replace defective cells in the patient, and finally, the reintroduction of the modified cells into the patient once the genes have been fixed in their vectors (Gardner et al. 1991). According to Mulligan (1993), transfer of appropriate target cells is the first critical step in gene therapy. Many different meth

Detecting whether an individual has the capacity to develop a specific disease during their life and being able to link the disease to a specific chromosome and ultimately the gene responsible is done by genetic testing. Genetic testing is basically done by cutting a piece of DNA with restriction enzymes and inserting them into a plasmid and finally analyzing the gene. Once a gene is located and defined as the cause of the disease, scientists can then start to develop a plan of action for gene therapy. There are three sequential steps to gene therapy: first, the partial removal of a patient’s