title: Legal and ethical challenges in gene therapy.
abstract: This paper addresses implications of applying the ethical principle of justice to gene therapy. Regarding somatic cell gene therapy as a treatment of last resort for life-threatening or seriously disabling disorders may be inconsistent with subjecting therapy to the preliminary scientific and ethical scrutiny given to research proposals. Emergency care may justify disregarding legal conditions of care, and be governed by different ethical priorities than research. Excluding gene therapy for reasons of enhancement rather than cure is widely agreed, but cosmetic procedures are considered legitimate in private markets. Intergenerational justice is a principle that may justify concentrating therapy on conditions afflicting children rather than older patients.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of law, University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Dickens
mesh_terms: D026683:Advisory Committees; D030881:Disclosure; D026724:Ethical Review; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn; D024861:Genetic Enhancement; D036281:Genetic Research; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D026706:Paternalism; D018579:Patient Selection; D040841:Resource Allocation; D036302:Therapeutic Human Experimentation; D035703:Therapies, Investigational; D028761:Withholding Treatment