Medicine and genetic research

In recent years, there has been an enormous increase in inter­est in and financial support for genetic research. As a result, a great deal of progress has been made in this important area of knowledge. For example, some years ago scientists successfully identified the genes for a number of serious birth defects and dis­eases that children can inherit from their parents. On the basis of this advance, medical science has developed tests that enable doc­tors to discover a variety of genetic abnormalities in unborn babies, abnormalities that are usually incurable and which often result in death.

More recently, genetic researchers have begun to use their knowledge not just to diagnose but also to develop treatment for life-threatening genetic illnesses. For cases of diseases such as he­mophilia, sickle-cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and a number of immune-deficiency diseases, researchers are testing ways to intro­duce perfect genes into patients. Some of the early results of such experimental treatments have been very promising. In one study, a gene whose absence causes immune-deficiency has been introduced into the white blood cells of two young immune-deficient children. As a result, they are beginning to show the natural resistance to diseases and infection that humans normally have. In other re­search, medical scientists are studying the effectiveness of a natu­ral human protein that can now be produced in large quantities in the laboratory, thanks to genetic engineering. The protein is being given to patients who suffer from cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease of the lungs that affects fifty thousand Americans and is often fatal by the age of thirty.

Medical researchers are very excited about the possibility of using techniques of genetic engineering to treat conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. However, they caution that such treatment is still years away. What is fully available today, thanks to genetic research, is the possibility of eliminating a num­ber of incurable genetic diseases. We can begin to do this, health experts argue, by informing people who carry defective genes about the health risks for any children they might have. This practice is already quite common in the United States and in other industrial countries. After tests have shown that they carry a genetic disease, some people have decided not to have children. They don't want to take the risk that a child of theirs will suffer from an incurable mental or physical defect.

However, progress in genetic research is also raising a num­ber of important moral and ethical questions for the medical pro­fession and for society in general. For example, we now have the ability to produce human growth hormone by genetic engineering. The hormone, of course, can be used to help people who are genet­ically lacking in it. But should it be made available to people who are merely dissatisfied with their size and wish to be taller? A more serious question is raised by our ability to identify defective genes in unborn children and our wish to eliminate some genetic diseases. If tests show that a baby will be born with some incurable disease or abnormality, should the parents have the right to ask for an abortion? Today in the United States and in many other countries, abortions are legal in such cases. However, many people, especially people with strong religious beliefs, disagree strongly with this practice. For them abortion is morally wrong. In their opinion, science must look for other ways than killing unborn babies to eliminate genetic diseases.

Main Idea Check

1. Draw a simple cause-effect diagram while you read.

2. Check back for the meaning of this ad­vance.

3. Check back for the meaning of such experimental treatments.

4. Check back for the meaning of this.

a. to identify defective genes

b. to eliminate some genetic diseases

c. to cure children with genetic dis­eases.

5. Up to now, have passages 1-3 discussed the medical benefits or problems of genetic re­search? What do you expect in the new paragraph?

6. Check back for the meaning of this prac­tice.

7. Choose the sentence that best expresses the main idea of the passage:

a. Progress in genetic research has given us the hope of treating or eliminating genetic disease, but it is also causing moral and ethical problems.

b. Doctors can now identify people who perhaps will have children with genetic abnormalities.

c. Today, although abortion is legal in the United States, many people are op­posed to it.

d. Medicine has benefited a great deal from the progress that has been made in genetic research in recent years.

8. What are the names of some specific genetic diseases?

9. At the time this article was written, how much progress had been made by research in the genetic treatment of diseases?

a. Research had made such great progress that some treatments were al­ready becoming widely available.

b. Research had been successful enough to give hope that genetic treatment would become available in the future.

c. Failures and disappointments in the research had caused serious doubt that genetic treatment would ever be worthwhile.

10. How do health experts suggest that we begin now to solve the problem of some genetic diseases?

a. By encouraging people with certain defective genes not to have children.

b. By using technology to cure the diseases.

c. By performing surgery on children with genetic defects.

11. Doctors never inform adults who carry defective genes about the danger that they will have children with serious mental or physical abnormalities. T / F

12. Everyone agrees that abortion should be available to women who are carrying unborn babies with incurable genetic diseases. T / F

What Do You Think?

What is your opinion on the two specific moral and ethical questions that are mentioned in this passage? Should people of normal size be able to use the products of genetic engineering (e.g., human growth hormone) to make them­selves taller or stronger? Should society allow abortions when an unborn child has a serious genetic defect?

? VOCABULARY PRACTICE

Same or Different?

Writers sometimes express the same ideas with very different grammar and vo­cabulary. This exercise will help you identify such occurrences.

Read the two sentences in each example, and decide whether they express the same ideas or different ideas. Choose S when the sentence expresses the same idea; choose D when they express different ideas. Remember: You can express the same ideas with different words and different grammar!

1.

a. In spite of the considerable advances that have been made in medicine in the last thirty years, we still have not eliminated a number of infectious diseases.

b. Many infectious diseases have now disappeared because of the great progress that has been made in medicine during the last thirty years. S / D

2.

a. The patient recovered consciousness an hour after the opera­tion.

b. After the surgery, the patient remained unconscious for only an hour. S / D

3.

a. Sometimes doctors can save the life of a patient if the latest high-technology equipment is available to them.

b. The latest high-technology equipment sometimes enables doc­tors to prevent a patient's death. S / D

4.

a. The number of women who die from lung cancer every year has been rising in recent years.

b. In recent years, among females there has been an increase in the annual death rate from lung cancer. S / D

5. a. In the United States, abortions are available to pregnant women who are carrying babies with serious genetic defects.

b. In the United States, if a serious genetic abnormality is discov­ered in an unborn child, the mother can request and receive an abortion. S / D

6.

a. Polio is a very infectious disease.

b. There is a very effective vaccine for polio. S / D

7.

a. The number of cases of infectious diseases in the Third World could be greatly reduced if better sanitation were provided.

b. By improving sanitation in developing countries, we could achieve a considerable reduction in the number of people who catch infectious diseases. S / D

8.

a. Medical science still knows very little about mental illness.

b. Medical science still has a very poor understanding of genetic diseases. S / D

9.

a. Mass immunization programs cost a great deal to carry out.

b. It is very expensive to immunize large populations of people. S / D

10.

a. New and safer vaccines are being developed by medical sci­ence for certain diseases.

b. Medical scientists are developing new and safer drugs for the treatment of certain diseases. S / D

11.

a. Providing adequate sanitation and clean water are the two top priorities for the health-care systems in many developing coun­tries.

b. In many Third World countries, the lack of adequate sanitation and clean water are the two most urgent problems for the health-care systems. S / D

12.

a. Advances in genetic research and medical technology are forc­ing the medical profession to answer difficult ethical questions.

b. Because of the progress that has occurred in the area of ge­netic research and medical technology, the medical profession is having to make some difficult ethical decisions. S / D

Making Connections

Each example in the exercise has a lead sentence and two sentences (a and b) that might or might not logically follow the lead sentence. Read the lead sen­tence, and ask yourself what kind of idea you could expect in the next sentence. Then read sentence a. Decide whether it can follow the lead sentence and make good sense. Choose Y for "Yes" or N for "No." Do the same for sentence b. Remember:

Look for the ideas that make a logical connection between each pair of sen­tences.

This is also a vocabulary learning exercise. If you have problems with any new words, check their meanings as you work.

1. In industrial countries, mass immunization has made it possible to almost eliminate certain infectious diseases.

a. In the United States, for example, there have been very few cases of polio since the polio vaccine became widely available in the 1950s. Y / N

b. Influenza, for example, still causes ten thousand deaths in the United States annually. Y / N

2. According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, an annual shot of influenza vaccine would especially benefit older people with heart and lung problems.

a. If all members of this section of the population received flu shots, a considerable number of lives would be saved every year. Y / N

b. These people often do not have the physical strength to recover from an attack of flu that would be unpleasant but not fatal for a younger person. Y / N

3. An enormous number of people in the world's poorest countries do not have clean drinking water or adequate sanitation facilities.

a. In these countries, the annual death rate from preventable dis­eases like simple diarrhea is extremely high. Y / N

b. So in these countries, the first priority of the health-care systems is to build more hospitals. Y / N

4. In 1976, an official report concluded that the health service in Cuba was not paying sufficient attention to the prevention of health problems.

a. The report suggested that more of the latest drugs and medical technology should be made available to hospitals for the treat­ment of their patients. Y / N

b. This lack of attention, the report concluded, contributed to the failure of the health-care system to effectively solve the country's health problems. Y / N

5. Recent advances in genetic research have caused ethical problems for the medical profession and for society in general.

a. For example, scientists are hoping ultimately to be able to use genetic engineering to produce new and safer vaccines for hu­man use. Y / N

b. For example, we may be able to successfully treat some genet­ically inherited diseases. Y / N

6. It seems that the new drug the doctors are using in this patient's case has been very effective.

a. He is now completely incapable of any physical movement. Y / N

b. The infection is disappearing and he is now conscious. Y / N

7. Some doctors are completely opposed to the idea that incurably ill patients should be allowed to die if they want to.

a. They cannot imagine any circumstances where they would be willing to turn off life-support equipment. Y / N

b. If you give expensive treatment to people like these, the doctors argue, you are wasting money and resources that are urgently needed for other cases. Y / N

8. According to many people, we cannot force people who are carrying a se­rious genetic disease not to have children.

a. To do this would be unethical and inhuman. Y / N

b. However, we can encourage them not to have children by infor­ming them of the possible mental or physical abnormalities that their children could be born with. Y / N