Issues Related to Gene Therapy

This therapy however has some legal, social and legal implications that ought to be disclosed to the patient in order for them to be fully aware before consenting to such treatments (Walsh, 2003) Communicating the gene therapy results should be appropriately done and they should be discussed with the patient. Since most of these genetic results do not provide direct results the patient should therefore understand the extent of information and the results should only be given to those people who have consent from the patient. The method of communication should also be well determined to avoid unauthorized people from getting the results (Huxtable, 2013). Social implications Gene therapy information may evoke some questions concerning the personal responsibility and choice versus genetic fate together with issues of health and disease.

Factors that affect one personally such as community, family values and beliefs in the culture will dictate the responses awarded to these issues. Ethically the embryonic cells are preferred as compared to adult cells since adult cells due to high rate of division and thus high likelihood of success in gene therapy research (Guinn et al. , 2008) Legal implications The concept of autonomy has a legal implications since the patient undergoing the therapy has the rights to full information of the benefits and potential risk of the therapy. The patient also has the right to make their own decisions as provided for in the constitution and they can either accept the therapy or refuse and they should not be forced (Huxtable, 2013). Confidentiality in the legal aspects is also catered for by set of principles that discourages discrimination and penalizes those who use critical information of the patient wrongly.