What is the difference between Gene Therapy and Stem Cell Technology?
I am writing a speech to persuade people that Gene Therapy is a good thing. Does this mean i have to include Stem Cell Research? Are they two completely different concepts or branches of eachother? And what ARE the ethical concerns of Gene therapy? Playing God etc?
Thank you =) xx
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Stem cell research concentrates on the creation of stem cells that can be altered to possibly grow tissues & the like. Gene therapy concentrates on manipulating genes that are already there to find which ones cause certain diseases & conditions and then to hopefully find a way to eradicate them (think cancer, diabetes, etc.). They are not the same thing, but are somewhat related in that both are used to cure and/or prevent certain diseases & conditions - or that is the hope anyways. "Playing God" in relation to the above would be a completely different topic - I wouldn’t include that in your speech unless that was the basis of your speech.
Pretty sure they’re completely different concepts. Stem cell research is about growing new organs and body parts out of basic cells, whereas gene therapy is about replacing or treating parts of the human genome.
Also stem cell research is only controversial when they’re talking about harvesting embryonic stem cells (currently from frozen embryos that could develop into babies, but potentially from government-mandated abortions in the worst of circumstances).