Patients' psychological well-being and freedom to choose are also important considerations. The huge societal demand for cosmetics, cosmetic surgery and health clubs proves how important people consider it to look and feel good. The issues surrounding when treatment is warranted, what risks are worth taking, and whether people have equal access to therapy are no different for gene therapy than for other interventions. Therefore gene therapy, even when used for enhancement, shouldn't be treated differently from any other medical intervention. It certainly shouldn't be rejected out of hand, particularly when existing oversight mechanisms subject it to an extraordinary level of scrutiny.
Many people seem to feel that tinkering with genes is somehow different.
Such apprehensions have a long history. Techno-skeptics predicted electrocution from the first telephones, believed Edward Jenner's early attempts at smallpox vaccination would create monsters growing from the site of injection, and doubted the possibility of matching blood for transfusions. Of course not. Henry I. Miller is a senior research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. From 1979 to 1993 he was responsible for biotechnology policy at the Food and Drug Administration.