The scientific community is striving hard to maintain a bioethical balance, through consortiums and conferences, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science's conference. The community is especially involved in trying to maintain the integrity of the science through the encouragement to integrate bioethics classes into medical schools across the nation. Biotechnology gives us the resources to make educated decisions concerning the possible transmission of inherited disease from parent to fetus through the valuable tool of pre-natal testing. For some, this means choices concerning childbearing are returned to them that thought these types of choices were gone forever. Imagine, for a moment, the smile on a new mother's face as she cradles her newborn in her arms, knowing, without a doubt, that the child does not have neurofibromatosis, even though the mother herself is a carrier of the disease.
Gene therapy benefits society by improving quality of life issues.
Gene therapy has made it possible to contain the cost of insulin and increase its availability, two very important factors to a diabetic. Modern medicine has used gene therapy to free two very young girls from their plastic prison. It must have been incredible for them to walk outdoors and experience the sun's kiss upon their face for the first time. It must have been even more incredible for the parents of these young girls to hold them close without the barrier of cold plastic between them. Biotechnology, even in its infant stages, has made significant positive changes in the lives of those whom it has helped.