... long story; the road to the first approved gene therapy procedure was rocky and fraught with controversy. The biology of human gene therapy is very complex, and there are many techniques that still need to be developed and diseases that need to be understood more fully before gene therapy can be used or banned from society. The public policy debate surrounding the possible use of genetically engineered material in human subjects has been equally complex. Major participants in the debate have come from the fields of biology, McNamara 2 government, law, medicine, philosophy, politics, and religion, each bringing different views to the discussion. While the development of gene therapy techniques will undoubtedly place some embryos at risk in the laboratory, once successful techniques are developed, the therapy could help parents and researchers avoid the moral dilemma of disposing of "defective" embryos in the lab if the embryos could be repaired. Many ...

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