Gene therapy is a type of treatment which changes a person's genes to avoid illness.
It is a means to cure disease by making corrections or replacing abnormal genes with healthy, normal genes or genetic components. This treatment is only beginning to surface in the scientific community and is surrounded by optimism and controversy. Scientific trials are being conducted on the use of gene therapy to treat such diseases as Cystic Fibrosis and Muscular Dystropy. This therapy changes genes within a diseased person. The changes in these genes are not passed on to the children the treated person creates.