Gene Therapy and Transfer Techniques?

Hey I am writing a research paper that requires me to get the opinions of atleast 10 other individuals to make a comparison/contrast paper on people ideals and opinions toward the following question... Best answer will get 10 points.

Gene therapy and Transfer techniques offer the potential to treat harmful diseases in a powerful way. The development of the technology also allows its use for non-theraputic applications such as specifying what you want your child to look like, etc.
Do you feel that this is a good technology to develop? What kind of policy would you develop to govern its use? (Only used in extreme conditions life or death/ or used like cosmetic surgery whenever you want it?)

Should we allow parental autonomy over non-essential characteristics of children?

Great question.

Gene therapy and transfer techniques offer great hope to mankind. I believe these are inherently good medical technologies, however, they do raise ethical questions. On the one hand, we have an ethical responsibility to develop these technologies to treat illnesses for the greater good. On the other hand, we also have the ethical and moral obligation to use the technology responsibly. I would establish a national or international panel of medical ethics to develop policies and guidelines for the use of this technology. The bioethical principles involved are these:

1. Beneficence (the universal moral principle to do good)
2. Non-maleficence (the obligation to do no harm
3. Justice (the fair allocation of resources equally)
4. Autonomy (the right of individuals to self determination)

I would also charge the committee to consider appropriate regulation on the use of these advances. Findings from scientific research studies should prioritize the use of this technology for treating illnesses that are not curable with standard medical treatment. I believe it would be wasteful (and violate the principle of justice) to use this technology for cosmetic surgery or developing "designer babies".

Parental autonomy should be balanced with the other ethical principles such as doing no harm and doing good. Since this is an emerging field, parental counseling should be mandated when there are decisions to be made on the use of these technologies with unborn children. A model for this already exists in the area of genetic counseling.

This is the model I think we should use.

Thanks for the question and best wishes!

Mark