Form of treatment
Gene therapy is a form of treatment for certain diseases. Gene therapy is intended to cure mainly diseases that caused individual defective genes or caused by missing genes by introducing one or more genes into the cells of the human. It is a form of genetic engineering and just like genetic engineering, it is characterized by a lot of moral and ethical issues. It is a very debated method and is very much driven by the curiosity in society as well as the need for alternative treatment methods. You have had a lot of hopes for this, but also a lot of criticism as several attempts have failed and you have then that researchers have seen this more as an experiment. This is, as I said, something revolutionary in research and different technologies, a very big step forward, but just like genetic engineering in general, it is important to draw a line because, after all, it is used on living individuals. It is when that line has become blurred that dissatisfaction has arisen, when he considers that researchers have been just too inside part to succeed with this technology and be able to develop it instead of taking into account the person in question who is going to undergo this experiment. This has led to several deaths in both humans and animals on which these tests have been performed. The need for alternative methods such as this grows and therefore it is of course good that it develops, but this is also where the danger lies, when the need becomes too great, people tend to ignore human life experiments are carried out as long as they can get their experiments done and develop the technology, It is rarely an advantage to be too desperate. As I said, this is characterized by a lot of ethics, morals and different opinions – good new treatment methods some think while others think it is wrong to change a person’s cells and body in such a way that no one has the right to play god. All this morality is very important and also the reason why you cannot perform as many attempts or broaden this endlessly, but more about it later!
The fundamental idea
The basic idea in gene therapy is to replace one or a few damaged genes or a missing gene by replacing it with a corresponding healthy gene. This is done by transferring gene (s) from one organism to another and in this way you change the organism’s DNA. Trying to improve or ”correct” DNA can have major consequences, positive or negative if it does not go as planned, because it changes the person’s genetic mass and what genes and how healthy future children will get. Thus, there is no method where you can easily correct your mistakes or perform a lot of attempts without stringent security measures first, many believe. This is because it has such great consequences for probably several people (depending on whether you have children). This is a major reason why research and experiments in gene therapy are very limited, as it can cause life-threatening consequences and erroneous changes in the genetic mass and DNA. What I mean by incorrect changes are changes in the person’s DNA that has not gone as planned, that is, it does more harm than good. It is a change in DNA, and through gene therapy when you replace a damaged / missing gene, you consciously change the genetic material but if everything goes as planned, the change should benefit the person in question instead, and thus not be a wrong change.
The purpose of gene therapy
The purpose of gene therapy is to counteract the effects of the few genes or missing genes, as the knowledge has grown and you are now aware that the lack of genes is the cause of several diseases. Through gene therapy, you consciously modify an individual’s DNA and hereditary mass, change how the person’s body is made up, what the body does (eg what protein it forms) and can put on it to counteract diseases caused by the interaction between the genes not working as they should. . So you want to correct what you consider to be wrong in a person’s cells, thus improving man and that is where ethical issues come into the picture. Some believe that it is wrong to change a person’s genetic mass and genetic codes that DNA also contains, although it is only for the purpose of combating disease, since it is believed that as soon as one begins to ”improve” a person’s DNA, it will continue to you try to get to ”the perfect man”.