As gene therapy evolves would you support using the technology to eliminate diseases?
1
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.no, let's just hack off body parts with saws. if it was good enough for union soldiers, it's good enough for us, right? geez, of COURSE we should use whatever technology we can to eliminate diseases. don't worry; more diseases will develop, many of them not genetic at all. overpopulation won't be any more dreadful than its current exponential growth would predict without gene therapy.
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genessa
Level 8
Jan 20, 2019
1
It depends on the disease...maybe. I’m uncomfortable with the idea that almost any condition could be deemed undesirable and worthy of eradication. I’m more comfortable with altering painful/terminal conditions such as cystic fibrosis or osteogenesis imperfecta.
CarolinaGirl60
Level 8
Jan 18, 2019
1
Curious...what type of conditions would those be? I know disease elimination would be priority, but I also know that there are thousands of research proposals that include other areas...
@thinktwice First priority should be debilitating, painful, and/or rapidly terminal illnesses such as I listed above: cystic fibrosis, osteogenesis imperfecta.(as examples).
It should be available and affordable to all, which is another ethical question: should only those with wealth benefit?
Then there’s the vagueness of the term ‘condition’...basically covers everything from acne to cancer. What if parents find out genes can make their child have blue eyes, or be taller, etc? Parents right now won’t vaccinate because they have the delusion of ‘saving’ their kids from autism; what might such people be willing to manipulate?
The entire issue is full of ethical dilemmas. I’m not totally comfortable with it.
@CarolinaGirl60 I agree...diseases and life endangering research should get top priority...gene manipulation to obtain other things like eye color of choice is a bit creepy to me....I thought we were on the same page...so thanks for replying....I also made the point in a comment below that it has to be available to all...would you be amenable to adults having other options, for instance, to get gene therapies that would prevent cosmetic things like age spots, fat accumulation, etc?
@thinktwice Cosmetics would be no different than plastic surgery, imho. Maybe less traumatic and expensive. Even poor folks like me want to look nice...but I bet it would still be cost-prohibitive to many.
@CarolinaGirl60 The reason I asked was that when I was doing some research on gene therapy, I saw several were related to things that had nothing to do with health...more like fitness things...of course, a lot of those are funded privately and I am wondering if it is related to military applications as well as commercial...it is a fascinating area.
Oh Hell No! Rverybody should have a chance to enjoy Lupus, MS, Parkinson's, and cancer at least once!
AnneWimsey
Level 9
Jan 18, 2019
2
I think it would awesome as long as it was available to everyone who wanted it and not just to those who could afford it....
thinktwice
Level 8
Jan 18, 2019
7
Why would anyone oppose that??
Dhiltong
Level 8
Jan 18, 2019
1
The same reason they oppose stem cell research I guess.
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