In biology class I had to do a write-up on genetic testing and gene therapy. To summarize, the future of science and medicine includes genetic testing and alteration in order to predict, prevent, and treat disease. Currently, doctors can test people for genetic misspellings to see if an individual is high risk for any given disease, such as breast cancer. Recently doctors have been able remove cells, replace the misspelled DNA strands and replace the cells and the patients can dramatically improve. Also stem cell research has given many people hope that their currently incurable disease will be curable in the future. Scientists can even look at a fertilized egg to see what genetic predispositions it will have. In the future they will be able to remove such predispositions. There are so many intriguing possibilities in the future. But it is not without its controversy.
Many people think that such gene therapy, and future possibilities are unethical. They believe that people are “playing God” and are meddling in things that aught not be meddled with. I don’t know where I stand exactly. But I do think that a world where sick and suffering people could be cured with relatively little pain is a world in which I would like to live.
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