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Luke asked in Science & MathematicsBiology · 7 years ago

Do you think humans could be "improved via genetic engineering?

Why or why not? Asked this question because to me it seems like everything you could do to "improve" people has its downfalls as well, just like evolutionary trade offs. If your answer is yes, then how?

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  • 7 years ago
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    The most promising benefit of human genetic engineering is gene therapy. Gene therapy is the medical treatment of a disease by repairing or replacing defective genes or introducing therapeutic genes to fight the disease. Over the past ten years, certain autoimmune diseases and heart disease have been treated with gene therapy. Many diseases, such as Huntington's disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), and cystic fibrosis are caused by a defective gene. The hope is that soon, through genetic engineering, a cure can be found for these diseases by either inserting a corrected gene, modifying the defective gene, or even performing genetic surgery. Eventually the hope is to completely eliminate certain genetic diseases as well as treat non-genetic diseases with an appropriate gene therapy.

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