Gene therapy is a very new, very unreliable type of treatment due to the little knowledge we truly have on the concept. For this reason the ethical debate surrounding gene therapy is complex. There is very little debate when it comes to using gene therapy to treat diseases that are incurable and life-threatening; few would argue against giving a person suffering from an incurable disease a hope of changing this. However, the major ethical debate focuses around the fact that gene therapy has a number of other uses besides curing such diseases and the problem lies in knowing where to draw the line on what gene therapy should and should not be used for.
At the forefront of the debate is the idea that gene therapy gives humans the opportunity to “play God”. Many people believe that God makes each of us a certain way and if this means we are born with a disability or a genetic disorder then that is simply the way God intended us to be. Gene therapy is based around the idea of changing these very traits that were “intended” for us. For some it would seem clear that if there is a possibility of a cure for such illnesses then why should we not take up the opportunity. For others the idea of going against God’s will is unnerving.
Misuse of gene therapy
Another major ethical dilemma is the potential of gene therapy to be misused. In some cases, such as finding a cure for cancer, there is absolutely no doubt that gene therapy is used for good. Nevertheless, gene therapy also has the potential to be used in a number of ways that many would argue are immoral. For example, gene therapy could be used to change physical features that are not exactly disorders – such as height, athletic ability and intelligence. Similarly, gene therapy opens a door to the concept of “designer babies” – it gives parents the opportunity to choose what traits they would like their child to have. This is uncomfortably comparable to Hitler’s attempts to create a superior race and the ethical issue here is obvious.
There are two types of gene therapy: somatic-cell gene therapy – where the therapy only affects cells within the recipient’s body; and germline gene therapy – where the effects are passed down to any future offspring. There is little ethical debate with somatic-cell therapy as it treats a consenting patient and the effects begin and end within the body of that patient. However, with germline gene therapy the effects can be felt in the reproductive cells meaning that future offspring will be affected. Whilst this therapy has the potential to cure an entire bloodline of a genetic error that causes a genetically inherited disease; it poses an, as yet, unknown risk to an unborn child because the little research carried out has not yet been able to test the long term effects on any unborn child. There is no guarantee that germline gene therapy would not cause unknown damage to a foetus and likewise there is no guarantee that a child born having received germline gene therapy would not develop any disorders during their lifetime as a result of the treatment.
Ethical dilemmas in gene therapy
The ethical dilemmas in gene therapy are based on two very distinct ideas: who are we to play “God”; and how do we clearly define the difference between disability and disorder and simple genetic traits that might be considered ‘flawed’. Gene therapy is undoubtedly a dangerous game when we think of the power it puts in our hands; it gives us the power to change life as we know it. It is a scary thought and it is something we should approach with caution and with restraint. Nonetheless gene therapy could cure some truly heartbreaking disorders and for this reason we have to at least try to open our minds to its potential.
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