With current medical healthcare standards, most pregnancies today are very successful. Because of this, gene therapy isn’t on the forefront of everyone’s mind. However, if you place yourself in the shoes of a parent willing to do anything to cure their child, the need for gene therapy becomes very real. Imagine this situation: You are a newlywed, and have just discovered that you are going to be a parent. Following standard prenatal healthcare you chose to receive regular checkups from your local midwife or doctor. Unfortunately, one of these checkups reveals that your child has a terminal disease. The current situation looks grim. Your options are limited to continuing with the birth, or having an abortion. Neither of which have a happy ending; Situations like this are not unheard of, and are examples of why gene therapy should be legalized and put into practice.
Sang-oh Han, author of “Development of Biomaterials for Gene Therapy” describes gene therapy as a method to provide patients somatic cells with the genetic information required for producing specific therapeutic proteins to correct or modulate disease (2000). The purpose of somatic gene therapy is to overcome the limitations associated with the direct administration of therapeutic proteins as a result of this interaction an eventual cure of the disease will be achieved through only a single treatment. Using these methods gene therapy is capable of curing genetic diseases, cancer, peripheral vascular disease, arthritis, neurodegenerative disorders, as well as other acquired diseases.
Gene therapy techniques consist of several key elements. A key element is the identification and cloning of the gene or genes related to the disease, which is going to be maintained or treated by gene therapy. However, gene therapy should not be confused with the concept of cloning. Cloning is creating another individual with essentially the same genetic makeup. The idea of cloning an entire human is very...