Genetic therapy involves technology that is still relatively young, and enough testing has not been done to ascertain its effect on potential human health impact. Nobody knows the long term effects of genetic therapy on humans. I think more time is needed to verify its effect before we will know the definitive answer with regard to safety. However, I strongly support genetic therapy to cure serious disease.
First, Now I’ll take up gout for example. Gout is arthritis which causes pain. Usually, the joints in the big toe are affected. It is believed to be the result of gluttony and inherited. Now I’ll focus inherited aspect. If genetic therapy is available and verified its effect, a lot of gout patients will be delighted. Especially me, because I’m one of the patients longing for such a therapy.
Second, Baldness. I believe we can include baldness as serious disease. Onset of hair loss sometimes begins as early as end of puberty, and is mostly genetically determined. Research has also shown that a person with a balding father also has a significantly greater chance of experiencing hair loss. This is applied to me. Yes, I’m afraid loosing my hair! There are some approaches to baldness such as medicine to treat high blood pressure, hair transplantation, stress reduction and so on. But it seems those are not definitive solution. If genetic therapy is available and verified its effect, a lot of people annoyed by baldness will be delighted.
In conclusion, it can benefit our society as a whole. This technology can contribute to the public good and improve the quality of our lives.
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Future of athletes
Genetic engineering is progressing rapidly. It can cure diseases in people. But it also can boost performance on athletes. Will the age when athletes receive genetic therapies and compete come?
In the Olympics, the athletes and the committee have been playing a game of chemical cat-and-mouse. Athletes use drugs to improve their performances, and technicians try to find its use. Once the detection methods are found, athletes go on to other doping techniques. Now, with the techniques of genetic engineering, this scene may change entirely.
Genes are codes that describe that person's biological makeup. So, if you insert genes that have certain characteristic into one athlete, that athlete acquires its characteristics. A sprinter who runs 100 meters in just under ten seconds could run the same distance in just six seconds.
Gene therapy today is still at infancy. Although we still do not know how it works, the human genome has already been mapped out, so it is just a matter of time for us to understand its functions.
But genetic manipulation can be dangerous and it poses various ethical problems.
You can say we should ban geneic manipulation on athletes. But actually the problem can be much more complicated: Should it be allowed for athletes recovering from disease or injury? Will two classes of competition--non-manipulated and manipulated be necessary? Should we allow athletes to compete who received this technique while they were at the stage of fertelized egg or in womb?
At the heart of this issue could be a very profound question: What is the definition of human?
Look at the car race scene, there you can find very odd modified cars, some of which can run at over 200 mph, but cannot keep idling state so needs to be pushed by human hands to get to the start line. If we allowed genetic engineering to athletes, would we see some kind of very strange HUMAN-LIKE animals in this planet? Wouldn't it bring some kind of disturbance to this society at various scenes?
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