The germ line therapy is of my concern whether it’s ethically acceptable since it entirely deals with replacement of genes which are hence integrated into genomes of either their precursors or human gamete which is meant to portray new genes which are usually expressed in patients’ subsequent offspring. The main idea behind carrying out the germ line therapy is mainly to reduce or to deal completely with the disease or suffering which have not been able to be alleviated by other therapies.
The operation should only take place in ethical traditions which portrays the welfare of patient is being considered so as to protect patient’s safety and the well being. The welfare of the patient should be valued since the operation is irreversible and therefore before it is initiated one should be ready to either have it successful or for it to fail. The defective genes are usually removed and hence they are replaced with normal functioning genes which are not defective. This can help to increase the survival chances of those individuals who are faced with poor traits which could be manifested in future generation.
Disease condition can hence be reduced since therapy will be conducted on germ cells which will result to a healthy offspring who will be born after the therapy. Therapeutic use These manipulations (genetic manipulations) should only be carried out for therapeutic purposes (DeWeather, 1993, p. 170). When they are carried out for other purposes it result to abuse of the treatment since some individuals can decide to use therapy for other purposes such as to boost their physical body characteristics which had not developed initially or they are developed but they do not resemble those characteristics that they admires.
Therapy which is used is meant to give desirable characteristics to those who undergo therapy by either modifying their genes or inserting additional genes which can hence improve human trait. In regard to ethical issues of gene therapy, the operation should not acceptable and therefore operation should not be carried out to those individuals who abuse genetic manipulation and they are not faced by any disease condition. • The therapy is acceptable only when it portrays meaningful benefits to the patient who requires it.
• Trade off should not be acceptable which can take place with other characteristics or traits. • Everyone should have an equal access to technology of gene therapy without regard to social economic factors. It is quite different to perform and accept germ line therapy which has raised a lot of ethical concern. Two methods can be used to carrying out the manipulations. These includes: treating pre-embryo with genetic defect before it’s implanted to the mother (Anderson & Fletcher, 1992, p. 30) Treatment of germ cells.
In this case, in-vitro way of fertilization is used and the other method involves treatment of germ cells, these cells include sperm egg cells of an adult who is afflicted so that they will not pass the genetic effect to the subsequent generation. (Latchman, 1994, p. 275) Germ line therapy effectiveness technically can not be fully used to rule out the effect of fetal screening. This is because germ line therapy can take place in embryo through in vitro fertilization whereby the cells (sperm and egg) are modified before implantation takes place.
Walter, one of the writers in ethical issues of human gene therapy argues out that, there are some morals which when evaluated can portray ethical issues of human germ line gene therapy since they favor its genetic interventions. Therapy is usually meant to prevent disability and heal disease conditions. (Procter, 1992, p. 99) Germ line therapy is meant to relieve offspring of a given family from genetic disorders within the family and it merely involves insertion of genes in germ cells and this can lead to dangerous effects which have not been known yet. (Schnieke et al. , 1997, p. 2135).