Gene therapy -- a largely positive process
Inscribed on the portal over the Oracle at Delphi is the Socratic injunction, "nosce te ipsum"; know thyself. In the year 2002, biologists will have fulfilled one aspect of that injunction by completing the Human Genome Project. Now and for the first time, we have available the essential blueprint for humans in the form of a DNA sequence. In spite of the fact that there are very few biologists who really believe that Genes 'R Us, that sequence does contain the full complement of information required to construct a person and, as a consequence, it represents a rich resource for future biomedical research. While it will certainly take several decades to fully comprehend the meaning of those instructions, the human genome project has already produced some practical outcomes. We now have available many new genetic tests that detect the presence of malady producing forms of specific genes, such as cystic fibrosis. Additionally, the field of biotechnology has converted human DNA sequences into gold, by mass producing large amounts of rare and therefore valuable human proteins, such as human growth hormone, used for the treatment of hereditary dwarfism. What I want to focus on here is how the human genome project has enabled the development of gene therapy, and how the development of gene therapy raises several profound ethical concerns.