Ethical Issues With Gene Therapy

While gene therapy holds promise as a revolutionary approach to treating disease, ethical concerns over its use and ramifications have been expressed by scientists and lay people alike. For example, since much needs to be learned about how these genes actually work and their long-term effect, is it ethical to test these therapies on humans, where they could have a disastrous result? As with most clinical trials concerning new therapies, including many drugs, the patients participating in these studies have usually not responded to more established the rapies and are often so ill the novel therapy is their only hope for long-term survival.
Key ethical issues:
• What is normal and what is a disability or disorder, and who decides?
• Are