The Gene Therapy Controversy

Whether it is in a movie like I Am Legend or on a popular news website like CNN, gene therapy is a subject that has gained a lot of attention over the past few decades. This is due to the fact that gene therapy has become a controversial issue because of the ethical questions that can arise and the uncertainty of when it is right to use gene therapy on a patient. When research into gene therapy began, many people wondered if it was safe to be used on humans or even if it would yield any progress at all. As trials began some patients did end up developing leukemia and died. This gave the study of gene therapy a notoriously bad reputation, but should it have this label permanently? In the articles “Gene therapy deserves a fresh chance” and “Will Gene Therapy Destroy Sports”, the authors analyze the past, present, and future of gene therapy and give their opinions on the controversial issue.

The title “Gene therapy deserves a fresh chance” gives the reader a good idea of where the author’s position is on this debate. The article focuses on the idea of looking at gene therapy in a different light: through the lens of a clinician. The author points out that clinicians “may well end up prescribing a therapy that has a poorly understood mechanism and potentially large side effects because it gives the patient the best odds of recovery or survival.” So why not take this attitude with gene therapy? If this method has even the slightest chance to save a life, should it not be pursued? Now that, “scientists and clinicians now have a battery of extraordinarily refined tools for preclinical and clinical studies of gene therapy” due to previous research, the field of gene therapy has the potential to make better and safer strides in the medical field.

The article “Will Gene Therapy Destroy Sports?” takes the exact opposite viewpoint of a “fresh chance”. The author immediately attacks the idea of gene therapy as people offering themselves as “guinea pigs”. It is an extremely effective comparison for the author to use to get their point across. The idea that they feel as if scientists are using people as test subjects without having any clue on what they are doing or any concern for the subject’s safety. Moving right along, the author gives examples of gene therapy’s failures to enforce the negativity of the subject. “Gene therapy is risky. In one experiment a patient died. In another the therapy worked, but 4 of the 10 human subjects—young children—got leukemia.” Now the whole idea of the article was whether gene therapy would affect the future that sports will take. Over the past few years, the use steroids and other enhancement drugs have become an easy way to get an edge in sports and that, “it’s inevitable that people will use it [gene therapy] for athletics and thus destroying sports. While the two articles are not directly related in topic, they both take a stand on the research of gene therapy.

Although both of the authors offer a compelling argument for their respective positions however, “Gene therapy deserves a fresh chance” presents the more convincing argument of the two. The article presents an observation of how our society works and then presents a valid question that cannot be easily dismissed. “Will Gene Therapy Destroy Sports?” appears to pull information of thin air and events unbelievable situations (such as a coach calling a doctor for gene therapy serum to enhance his entire football team) in order to support the argument.

I believe that gene therapy does have the ability to make a positive change in the world. Our own campus is proof of this. Dr. Steve Gray and Maria Escolar both work at the UNC Gene Therapy Center and they have been researching a cure for Giant Axonal Neuropathy (GAN). GAN is a genetic disorder that affects the development of the nervous system. It appears in early childhood with symptoms total paralysis, hearing and sight loss, and eventually decline in mental functions. Death usually occurs between 20 and 30 years of age. If gene therapy can really save people from a death sentence like this, it is definitely deserving of a second chance.

Works Cited:
"Gene Therapy Deserves a Fresh Chance." Nature 29 Oct. 2009: 1173-1312. Web. . <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7268/index.html>.

Behar, Michael. "Will Gene Therapy Destroy Sports." Discover Magazine 5 Aug. 2008: 1-4. Web. . <http://discovermagazine.com/2008/the-body/12-will-gene-therapy-destroy-sports>.