Gene Therapy

First of all, people can believe what they would like to. I would just hate to see gene therapy stopped because of ethical/religious issues people have. I also think that you are completely missing the point, for it doesn't really matter how long it takes for gene therapy to be perfected. Of course people would like gene therapy procedures to have an outcome you can always rely on as soon as possible, but what matters is what people can get out of gene therapy when it is perfected. It's a complicated issue, and it will take time to perfect! As I stated in round three, gene therapy, surgeries, and drug therapy are all used to treat different things. You cannot remove a genetic disease or disorder through "traditional ways of healing" (drugs and surgeries). Genes cannot be altered by using surgery. In order to alter or replace a gene, you must use gene therapy. It is the only way and it is the only hope for many families. So, I don't think that gene therapy is better than surgery and drug therapy, but gene therapy is used for genetic disorders and it isn't possible for surgery to cure a genetic disorder. They are used for different things. I couldn't find the exact number of lives gene therapy has saved, but it has cured over 200 leukemia cases. And it has cured many genetic disorders. And no, I wouldn't rather take medications or have surgeries to cure my genetic disease, for if I had one, surgeries and medications wouldn't work! Again, gene therapy is the only thing that can cure genetic disorders. Surgeries and medications will not do anything but possibly ease symptoms, which will not help the problem. Surgery and medications cannot alter or replace defective genes. Also, medication and surgery also come with many risks as well! You state that you think gene therapy could be useful in the future, but you also state that you don't think it should be used to cure anything today. First of all, I have shown examples of how gene therapy is beneficial today. Secondly, the only way gene therapy will become more useful in the future (as you think it could be) is if we use it today and learn to understand it better. It won't improve on it's own. Also, in the second round you say that there have been several deaths due to gene therapy. I am aware of several deaths, but the deaths weren't caused by gene therapy, they were caused be the patient already being to sick to help. You also say that sometimes people must take medications after gene therapy treatment that make them feel sick and drowsy, and that this is a disadvantage of gene therapy. But they would have to be on medications for their disorder anyway, even without gene therapy. You later than say that taking medications is preferable to gene therapy, so you would need to take them no matter what you choose to do, taking medications a disadvantage of having a disease, not of going through gene therapy. You also say that it is do expensive and richer people would abuse the benefits of gene therapy and use it for cosmetic purposes, and poor people wouldn't be able to pay for it. This has nothing to do with the disadvantages of gene therapy, it has to do with unequal distribution of wealth. It is irrelevant. In round two you also say, "Once you get genetic therapy, don"t think the rest of your family will be okay. Because of genetic therapy, there are developmental problems with their kids." This makes it seem like every person who has gone through with genetic therapy will now have developmental problems with their kids. When in reality, more cases turn out effective than not. It also sounds like gene therapy is the only thing that can cause developmental problems, which we both know isn't true. You also talk about ethical issues, such as "designer babies" and changing your looks. This is not because of gene therapy. This is because some people may have the chance to abuse the use of gene therapy, and there are ways we can prohibit this. One thing that really confused me was when you said, "Society will have less exception to those with a disorder or disease." What exceptions are you talking about? I cannot comprehend why anyone would want to have these exceptions in society instead of being cured and having their disease gone.