In today’s world, scientific innovations have become prevalent in medical profession, placing personalized medicine under a considerable debate. Despite being ground-breaking, such genetically tailored medicine sparks ethical concerns. Moreover, I largely disagree with the idea of experimenting it with young children for profound risks it carries.
To begin with, customized medicine can give rise to unintended negative consequences. Delving into modification of genes can place one at profound health risks. One major health risk is that it can potentially render a patient vulnerable to a wide range of diseases while curing a single illness. By altering one’s genetic composition, the patient is exposed to complicated medical disorders that can be unknown yet to medical profession and incurable. For instance, a doctor in China faces backlash for genetically treating twins to eradicate the possibility of HIV transmission during birth. While the treatment was hailed as a success, genetic alteration has transformed children’s immune system by heightening their vulnerability and potentially exposing them to a wide range of genetic disorders and illnesses in the future. This not only violates ethical dimension of doctors for performing without a patient’s consent but also undermines the quality of life of these children. Such personalized medical treatment only offers temporary relief while placing financial burden and immuno vulnerability on patients in the long run.
In my view, doctors should be prohibited in providing such care to children whose consent can be legally ignored by medical staff and parents and still bear life-long costs. Yet, experimenting the medicine with an adult is appropriate provided that the patient is fully aware of risks and willing to receive the treatment.
In conclusion, as medicinal practices that treat genetic makeup bring irreversible consequences, they should be regulated by authorities. However, with adult patients who can provide full consent and understand the potential risks, the procedure should not be stigmatized.