Gene Therapy and Medical Ethics

Gene Therapy or Genetic treatment using gene modifications is a new method for therapy and prevention of genetic and inheritable diseases in humans. The main idea in gene therapy is the delivery of a healthy gene to the genome of a person with a specific disease. Although two decades has passed since the introduction of the idea of gene therapy in medicine, the use of this technique in treatment of patients is at its early stages of implementation at the clinical settings. Most of the projects in gene therapies are still at research stage throughout the world and many ethical issues have surrounded the use of such technique in humans. In this article we have summarized the ethical issues and challenges which are faced by the medical communities throughout the world in using genetic technologies for therapies in humans.