Week 9:  Ethics of Gene Therapy----

Well, the fact that someone died from gene therapy due to an immune response is pretty disturbing. It all seems so risky and uncertain.... tumors can be induced if a gene is integrated in the wrong place in the genome (same fears with the genetically altered salmon that I wrote about....scientists forging ahead without considering wider consequences) The theory that info only travels from germline cells to somatic cells (DNA~RNA~protein)  is just a theory (Weismann barrier)-- and if it turns out that it is not true and this "barrier" is actually permeable, and genetic treatments of somatic cells may result in inheritable changes to the genome THAT would be scary genetic engineering of the HUMAN SPECIES!  Bad idea.