• Gene Therapy Survey
    19 replies, posted
Hello Facepunch. So I need to do a survey on how willing people would be to have gene therapy done on them. If your going to respond here is a little background information on the topic. Gene therapy is the transplantation of normal genes into cells in place of missing or defective ones in order to correct genetic disorders.There is an estimate of 3000 different genetic disorders present in humanity. While many of these are harmless some can be very deadly. We have gotten these disorders due to there being no natural predator to the human race allowing any mutation to survive in our genes. The most effective way to preform Gene Therapy is to use viruses , which are effective at changing cells DNA. Once the viruses has been inputted with the proper DNA all it can do is recode your DNA to that which is stored in the DNA of the virus The lentivirus is scientist desired method of transferring DNA due to its ability to store 10x more DNA than most viruses, but is related to viruses like HIV. There is also a chance for the virus to input the gene in the wrong place which can be harmful.There area a few other methods like naked gene insertion and putting the gene directly into a somatic cell but they're not as efficient.When Altering your DNA Scientist can do it one of two ways somatic cell therapy or reproductive cell therapy. The difference between the two is that one will only affect you and the other will affect you and all of your descendants. So that's that and here is the survey! Age: 15-25 26-50 51-75 76+ Education: HS BC MS PHD Gender: Male Female 1.If You found out that you had a serious genetic disorder would you use gene therapy to fix it? Yes/No 2.Would you use a lentivirus as a vector or would you prefer a different virus/method? Lentivirus/Other 3.Would You be more likely to try gene therapy if there was heavy government supervision? Yes/No 4.Would You prefer somatic gene therapy or reproductive gene therapy? Somatic/Reproductive 5.Would You rather do gene therapy now or wait 20 years for improved technology? Immediately/Wait End of Survey Here's a format to make it easier to answer. I ask that you answer with this format and discuss below it to make it easier to collate the data but you don't have to if you don't want to. Age: Education: Gender: 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: A big thanks to anyone who fills out the survey!
You forgot 'under 15' in age.
[QUOTE=NightmareX91;40251123]You forgot 'under 15' in age.[/QUOTE] Apparently your views don't matter if your under 15 according to my teacher but I would love to read the responses of those who are 14 and under.
Age: 3 and a half years old Education: ms paint Gender: Male 1: my mom says i'm fat because of you scientists! 2: i would not do a lenitivirus because communism is bad 3: i can't read 4: i use windows vt 5: I would much rather prefer to wait for improved technology seeing as it is a risky procedure currently but I'd still be very conscious about my appearance if it was something visible. Would depend on how visible the deformity was or how much it impacted me. I watched this documentary once on Taiwanese children with defects getting help from UK surgeons these deformities had great effects on their lives. I'd also consider it now at a risk because what if my children suffer as well? It would be very irresponsible of me to make my children suffer from the same effects. So really I'd say it depends but I guess I'd definitely go for the later option.
[QUOTE=VTG;40251474]Age: 3 and a half years old Education: ms paint Gender: Male 1: my mom says i'm fat because of you scientists! 2: i would not do a lenitivirus because communism is bad 3: i can't read 4: i use windows vt 5: I would much rather prefer to wait for improved technology seeing as it is a risky procedure currently but I'd still be very conscious about my appearance if it was something visible. Would depend on how visible the deformity was or how much it impacted me. I watched this documentary once on Taiwanese children with defects getting help from UK surgeons these deformities had great effects on their lives. I'd also consider it now at a risk because what if my children suffer as well? It would be very irresponsible of me to make my children suffer from the same effects. So really I'd say it depends but I guess I'd definitely go for the later option.[/QUOTE] Not all genetic disorders are visible for example sickle cell anemia lowers the carrying capacity of hemoglobin and is cause by a component of the hemoglobin being replaced with glutamic acid. Also thank you!
gene therapy won't ever fix the hole in my heart :'(
Age:17 Education:HS Gender: Male 1.It would depend on the disorder. If it was something that would not effect me untill old age, i would prefer to wait. If it provided a very real, immediate danger, i would have it now. 2.No opinion 3.Yes, however goberment supervision can strangle some industries, e.g. GM plants. 4.Somatic, if i get faulty therapy i don't want to pass it down. If it's a resssive trait, i wouldn't worry. 5.As mentioned above, it depends on the severity of the disease. I'd prefer to wait though.
Age: 17 Education: HS Gender: Male 1: I actaully have a genetic disorder, that will effect my older life(even though it is already affecting me right now, Becker's muscular dystrophy is the name of it.) and if possible I want that to be gone. 2: Don't care 3: Yes 4: Somatic, I never plan to get children 5: Later, since my current genetic disorder won't become a big problem until my 50's
Age: 21 Education: HS, but 1st year uni going for an MS Gender: Male 1: Don't have any, but definitely yes if I did. 2: Lentivirus is fine, unless there is a better alternative 3: Depends, if I pay a lot for the therapy at a very expensive clinic I'll trust the private company, but for average "mass-market" therapies? Yes. So in general, yes. 4: Assuming it's just a question of me or me + descendants, I don't see why not cure the descendants too. So reproductive. 5: I would rather wait, but I'd imagine it would depend on the disorder.
Age: 15-25 Education: Last year of high school, don't know what you want there. Gender: Male 1: Yes 2: I would use a lentivirus (the wording of the question doesn't make sense, it's multiple choice, not yes/no) 3: Yes 4: Somatic, assuming that's the one that doesn't affect relatives. 5: Immediately and now, because they're both the same thing.
Age: 18 Education: College Gender: Male 1: If there was a way to cure it, ofcourse 2: I have no idea what this is, I'd just say yes to everything the doctor said 3: Yes 4: Both at the same time 5: Wait 20 years unless I couldn't live with it now.
[QUOTE=raccoon2112;40252521]gene therapy won't ever fix the hole in my heart :'([/QUOTE] I got open heart surgery to fix a hole in my heart the size of the tip of my thumb. Heart murmurs rock. just kidding.
Age:18 Education:British College (HS) and moving on to University Gender:Male 1:Yes 2:Yes 3:Yes 4:Reproductive 5:Now
In my opinion the safest way to control genetic disorders is to highly discourage someone from reproducing once they are identified with one. You may think 'YOU CAN NOT DENY ME MY CHILDREN' but it's really the safest way to get our gene pool healthy again - it's how it happens in nature, just without the death/natural selection part.
Quite a lot of the common disorders come in play in later life. A life that has been becoming greatly extended by modern medicine and probably wouldn't have been a problem in the "wild".
Age: 21 Education: Some College Gender: Male 1: Yes 2: No Preference 3: No 4: No Preference 5: Immediately
[QUOTE=Hellduck;40255177]Age: 15-25 Education: Last year of high school, don't know what you want there. Gender: Male 1: Yes 2: I would use a lentivirus (the wording of the question doesn't make sense, it's multiple choice, not yes/no) 3: Yes 4: Somatic, assuming that's the one that doesn't affect relatives. 5: Immediately and now, because they're both the same thing.[/QUOTE] I'm very sorry. The question purpose was to show peoples reaction to the lentivirus being related to HIV, and I have fixed it to convey this properly.
Age: 19 Education: University: Bachelor Gender: Male 1:Yes 2: I don't think currently we can control the virus so no, I am more interested in the development of using bacterial transposon and plasmids although its in its very early stages from what I heard. 3:No 4:Somatic 5:Rather wait for the technology to be more refined
Age:16 Education:College Gender:Male 1:Only as a last resort. 2:I'd use whatever method the Gene Therapist preferred. 3:Yes 4:Reproductive 5:Later
If it'd keep my kid from being born with the same birth defect as me, heck yeah. Having a mutant rib cage is a real bummer, sometimes!
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