Germline Gene Therapy: Don't Let Good Intentions Spawn Bad Policy

摘要

"Human gene therapy" has been one of the most ambitious goals of biotechnology since the advent of molecular techniques for genetic modification in the 1970s. There are two distinct approaches, which present different kinds of benefits, risks, and controversies. Somatic cell human gene therapy (SHGT) alters a patients genes-either by the editing of existing genes or the insertion of new ones-to correct conditions inherited or acquired later in life. Somatic cells are any cells in the body except eggs or sperm, so modifications in them are not heritable-that is, passed on to offspring.