Oak Ridge National Laboratory was the first person to ever transfer animal genes into humans. He used a rabbit virus to try to restore the ability of two German sisters to make their own arginase, an enzyme that breaks down arginine. (The arginine had caused mental disabilities in the sisters.) This experiment did not work and patients were harmed. Martin Cline then became the first person to attempt gene therapy by putting a normal copy of a human gene into people who lacked it. Cline tried to treat beta thalessemia, a blood disease where too much iron builds up in a person’s system. He tried to insert the gene that codes for human hemoglobin. Cline never got permission and went ahead and did the experiments anyways in Israel and in Italy. He hurt people and got into a lot of trouble. No one tried gene therapy again for another ten years. These examples demonstrate another danger of gene therapy, the race by scientists and drug companies to get money and recognition without much regard for the patient’ safety. “About 40 % of the new studies proposed in the last 3 years have had industry sponsors who hope to commercialize genetic cures.” (www.sandyford.techie.org.uk/gelsinger.htm) It should come as no surprise to us that universities and drug companies withhold information about patient deaths. They have profits and shareholders to protect and answer to. Unfortunately, this race has caused secrecy to occur even recently. In November of 1999 six deaths went unreported to the NIH. This occurrence was profit driven and involved two competing companies, Isner's Vascular Genetics and Crystal's GenVec. These two companies were competing to be the first to grow new blood vessels around blocked ones in the heart. This they hoped would be an alternative to heart bypass surgery. The scientists argued that the patient’s deaths were not related to the gene therapy and therefore did not have to be r...
