Gene Therapy is Helpful or Harmful to Human being?

Imagine the impossibility of gene therapy. More than one gene defect has been associated with cystic fibrosis and retinitis pigmentosa. Would gene therapists propose replacement of all of these genes, at any cost? How would new genes be implanted into a recessed organ like the human eye? Researchers propose using viruses as carriers or vectors for new genes. Yet these viruses are problematic in themselves. The recent death of one patient in a gene therapy experiment, where viruses were used to inject new genes in place of old ones, may cause drug companies to back away from further research. 

Do genes control disease?

With a map of every human gene, maybe the course of dreaded diseases could be altered. But there are severe limits as to what gene therapy could ever hope to accomplish. Despite all the hype over biotechnology, gene therapy has cured no human disease to date. 
In Britain, geneticists are attempting to create a race of cancer-free babies. Even though defective dominant genes are responsible for only 2 percent of cancer cases, and even the existence of these genes does not assure the baby will develop cancer, the geneticists are analyzing eggs that have been removed from the mother and fertilized by in vitro fertilization. What the reporters don’t say is that the “cure” is to end the life of the embryo, which it is only 6 to 10 cells in size. Thus the cancer is prevented. It’s just another form of abortion! 

More can be accomplished with diet and lifestyle modification than with gene therapy. Even though considerable evidence shows that exercise, diet and other lifestyle factors reduce the incidence of adult-onset (Type II) diabetes, scientists continue to search for a genetic link to the disease. 

Can genetic disorders be altered, or are they inevitable? 

Can genetic disorders be modified by nutritional factors? Yes. Hemophilia is corrected by supplying a missing blood clotting factor. Various congenital malformations of glands can be overcome by supplementing with the hormones produced by these glands.
Misplaced priorities
Mankind is taking what it doesn’t know, and saying it holds great promise, while ignoring what it does know. The fact is, most people in the world don’t die because they have bad genes; they die prematurely because of foul water, poor sanitation, poor quality or quantity of food. Why spend billions of dollars on mapping the human gene pool, the benefits from which have yet to be proven, when the money could be spent on controllable factors in our environment that will readily improve the status of public health?