Abstract

Modern gene therapy tools have the potential to treat diseases through gene editing. Deadly diseases in the human genome could be eliminated or minimized. However, the technology could easily become abused. Therefore, countries have been banning research on gene editing for ethical and safety reasons. The goal of this study was to gain perspective about the opinions students have on gene editing. For our project, we surveyed 40 students attending the Univeristy of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherts about the ethics of gene therapy. The survey consisted of 10 questions, and the results were assembled into pie charts. The study showed that most people were neutral or agreed that using gene therapy to genetically modify genes to prevent lethal or genetically linked diseases was ethical. The majory also agreed that gene editing is not ethical when used for self-satisfaction and that people would use this technology for selfish purposes if it was normalized.