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Asked by doctorp to Vicky on 14 Mar 2012.
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Vicky Young answered on 14 Mar 2012:
Gene therapy is used to treat disease which is caused by a mutated gene. It works by adding more DNA to a gene or changing the DNA in a genes within someones cells as a therapy to treat the disease. It sounds extreem but diseases that are caused by gene mutations can be very severe and cause a lot of suffering. Diseases like cycstic fibrosis are caused by a gene mutation and affects millions of children around the world. Although we can’t cure this disease by gene therapy just now it is a possibility that we can cure it with gene therapy in the future. So in this sense I agree with changing genes to help people and children who are very sick and it think the science which can allow us to do this is amazing.
I do think it needs to be tightly controlled research though because changing genes can become very dangerous territory and I think it should only be used for treating illness.
Its a really good question. What do you think about it all?
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Comments
doctorp commented on :
I think its only good if it helps people otherwise its just wasteful.