Argumentative Essay: Is Gene Therapy Worth The Risk?

The “Bubble Boy” gene therapy experiment is one of the experiments on gene therapy. Gene therapy is still a moral debate to this day, some people beg the question if it’s okay to use gene therapy or what would it do to the human body which are all great questions. The discussion will be on whether the “Bubble Boy” gene therapy experiment was ethical or not and if the treatment was worth the risk. Basically the “Bubble Boy” experiment was on children suffering from the bubble boy disease which is a severe combined immunodeficiency that can possibly lead to death (Vaughn, 260). Sixteen children suffered from this disease so the researchers decided to try out the new treatment on them, they received gene therapy for nine years (Vaughn,260). Fourteen of the kids who received this gene therapy treatment became better and the treatment showed excellent results for them, however there was a couple of bad results, one little boy and four other children were diagnosed with leukemia which was the result or side effect of the treatment that they received (Vaughn, 260). The first question that was asked was if it was morally permissible for these researchers to use gene therapy even though they knew that some children might get leukemia after treatment (Vaughn, 260)? Yes, it was permissible every treatment or cure that researchers come up with has some type of risks. No one will ever know how their body will react to any type of treatment what works for some people might not work for others. Whether it was moral …show more content…
At first I was against gene therapy but after looking at this experiment gene therapy can save many lives. Gene therapy can be dangerous and risky but so can many other treatments. Every life matters, every person has the right to live a healthy fulfilling life and gene therapy can give people who are very sick or who has a bad disease a chance to live a good