Pros and cons of genetic therapy: with great potential comes a great amount of questions
Many illnesses and disorders are genetically related and can lead to instances of increased mortality rates with little to do in terms of solutions. Many of these illnesses are present in the early stages of a child’s life and can greatly impact their hope for a healthy future due to the difficult lack of options for remedies. Scientists have been working with a new method that can provide an answer to areas that currently have little to none through genetic therapy. Genetic therapy works at the simplest level of our genetic makeup and heredity to remove defective gene strands and replace them. For a better understanding, see our gene therapy pros and cons list.
Genetic therapy works by putting new healthy genes into someone’s tissue to replace a defective gene and alter the ability of a hereditary disease to manifest. Since this is a new frontier for science and research, it’s still in its early stages, but the hope is that eventually, genetic therapy can remove hereditary diseases once and for all.
There are two different types of genetic therapy: somatic and germline. Genetic therapy has been notably successful in treating genetic disorders such as muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. However, there are still some questions to be answered with genetic therapy, so pros and cons must be considered to determine if there’s any hope for genetic therapy to be a long-term solution worth investing time and resources into.
Advantages of Genetic Therapy:
- Gene therapy is a bright spot where no hope has existed before:
Genetic defects might present themselves before or after screening and they can essentially ruin many people’s lives and outlook. According to Child Health USA, in 2009, 3% of total live births had congenital disabilities. These disabilities can cause strain on the child and family’s life and should be sought to be remedied by any means. For almost all of these disabilities, although healthcare options and therapeutic options exist to make conditions more bearable, there is no cure. Gene therapy aims to remove over half of these instances of infant mortality. Current diseases that are generally harbingers of misery, such as cancer, can be removed genetically and can erase the pain that similar diseases cause. - Genetic therapy is a long-term solution that won’t need constant care and attention:
Since defective genes are fully replaced with functional genes, diseases removed through the process of genetic therapy are generally removed in one treatment with no reappearing symptoms later in life. For many of these diseases, they currently require long and arduous treatment plans that take their toll physically and emotionally on the patient and the patient’s family. Through the removal of defective genes, the genetic makeup of the patient is also no longer going to negatively impact their offspring by passing along that defective gene. - Gene therapy can eliminate certain diseases and improve overall optimism and wellbeing:
Through the germline method of genetic therapy, diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s can be replaced by functional genes and we should observe a complete disappearance of them for future generations. This extends to many more diseases as well. If you can replace negative genes with healthy ones, the impact can be huge on future generations and lowering their susceptibility to genetic diseases. Thus far, the focus has been solely on genetic diseases, but other areas of strife can also be resolved through genetic therapy. Areas such as infertility can be fixed through genetic therapy and can allow those who were once infertile to reproduce. Instances like this can bring great joy to those who would be great parents but might not have many options at their disposal in terms of raising children when infertile. Gene therapy has the potential to also alleviate the need for certain medications.
Disadvantages of Genetic Therapy:
- Currently genetic therapy is not foolproof, and accidents can happen:
Since gene therapy is in its infancy stage, most testing has been done on animals with the hope that similar results will be shown through human examples later on. It is unfortunately possible for gene therapy to fail and not only lack a positive result, but it can actually worsen a patient’s conditions. Much of these issues come from an immune system rejection of new genes and incompatibility issues when new genes are introduced, causing the genetic modification to fail. As research in this area progresses, it’s hoped that consistent results will be able to be achieved through more certain methods. - Gene therapy is still a very expensive treatment option:
With most new technology and advances in any area, but certainly, medicine comes at a high price since new machines are required, specialized doctors are required, and the resulting treatment is very expensive. The fee carried with gene therapy may not be affordable to all families and could result in greater socioeconomic separation as wealthy families are able to afford treatments to ensure their health, while disadvantaged families are susceptible to genetic disorders and diseases. As you might imagine, this could create an unfair segregation of lower income families since they would be less insulated from the threat of disease. Hopefully, through increased funding and technological advancement, the process of genetic therapy becomes cheaper and more financially available to everyone. - It is possible that human genes develop resistance to gene therapy:
One of nature’s greatest strengths is its ability to adapt to new introductions into an environment and integrate these new features and continue with business as usual. Due to this unpredictability of nature, although gene therapy is a potential solution to many genetic issues that currently exist, a developed tolerance could cause genes to revert right back to how they were prior to genetic treatment. Similar to how antibiotics can suffer from a developed tolerance, so too could genetic therapy. With this question in the air and unable to be observed until genetic therapy is in full swing for many years, it’s impossible to guarantee that gene therapy will deliver on the expectations that it has set for itself (or that we have set for it). As genes adapt to the treatment, it could even be possible that new defects are introduced down the line through adapted diseases. - Moral and ethical questions come along with gene therapy:
If you’ve been reading about genetic therapy and wondering if altering the genetic makeup of the human population is too far and perhaps too involved, you’re not alone. Many people question the ethics of altering how humans are born and what genes they’re born with. Some fear that this could lead to people shopping for attributes for their child by using genetic engineering to change attributes like athleticism, intelligence, and more. Genetic therapy is currently viewed as a key to eradicating many difficult diseases, but further down the line, it is certainly possible for money to get involved along with some shady motives and before you know it, parents are paying for their kids to be the fastest, brightest, and best-looking kid. Although it’s still very far out, the socioeconomic issues of genetic alterations don’t stop at being able to afford treatment for diseases, they also extend to being able to afford to design a perfect baby. Currently, our flaws are the great equalizer for any socioeconomic condition that we’re born into and at times being able to play to our strengths is one of the best ways to progress. If you can’t afford to have be born with a particular set of strong attributes, it could only further exacerbate disadvantaged entrapment.
Final thoughts: Gene therapy pros and cons list
In conclusion, although genetic therapy is a bright spot of potential where no progress has been made otherwise, it’s evident that there are still many questions to be answered and much more research and development to be done. The impacts of genetic therapy could be great and currently questions still exist not only at the level of the physical impacts of genetic changes and whether they’ll even be accepted by the human body and whether they’re insulated form resistance and adaptation by genetic diseases, but the concerns extend to socio-economic impacts.
Before genetic therapy is available to the public to use as a treatment option, the full spectrum of these impacts needs to be considered and perhaps legislation will be required to keep genetic therapy as it was intended to be and not turning into a cash cow for large corporations who aren’t interested in the health benefits, but who are instead interested in offering designer baby packages to the wealthy elite.
Eradication of disease is always something that should be pursued, but the question right now is at what cost and when does research and consideration suffice to put genetic therapy into practice? Only time will tell.