GMO:
A Solution for Healthcare Dilemma
GMO:
A Solution for Healthcare Dilemma
Sam Ghandchi
http://www.ghandchi.com/717-gmo-healthcare-eng.htm
Persian Version متن فارسی
http://ir.voanews.com/content/blog/1504732.html
Healthcare costs are skyrocketing in
the world and various approaches to the problem have yielded very little
results. What is fundamentally at the basis of modern healthcare dilemma?
Historically, humans lived in the natural world like other
species, and natural
selection meant survival of the fittest. In other words, if an individual member
of a species was not perfectly fit, it would die and most others that survived
would live to the maximum age that the species could live unless an accident
like a tree falling on their head happened.
With the development of medicine, we saw some people who never used any medical
help in their life and lived to the maximum age of the species, while others
needed constant medical attention in order to survive. But with the advancement
of medicine, the second case has increased more and more which is the main
reason for higher healthcare costs.
Infant mortality represents the first so-called "screening" of the new
generation of species by natural selection. One major milestone in modern
medicine was the decline in infant mortality. Changes such as these have called
for advancing medical methods to treat different diseases and medical
conditions.
Let's say that someone is born with rheumatoid arthritis. This means the genes
conferring rheumatoid arthritis have been passed down from parent to child. If
the genes had been screened before birth, for example through in vitro
fertilization coupled with screening methods, then the individual would not have
been born with those genes. Otherwise, if by gene therapy the genes were
corrected after birth, the solution would be a genetically modified organism (GMO),
meaning a modified gene solution to the problem, with the organism in this case
being a human.
It is true that some genetic defects may not have been inherited and would be
the result of some mutations later in life, such as for many cases of cancer. In
addition, some diseases are not viewed as genetic but rather as environmental.
Regardless, a GMO solution can work to correct these conditions as well, through
correction of somatic mutations in the first case and genetic modification to
resist environmental conditions or offset genetic pre-dispositions in the latter
case.
If one thinks in vitro fertilization and screening are unnatural, wrong,
not based on natural selection, and only OK to use such a solution for infertile
couples, then one could also respond that other conditions should be left to
natural selection as well, such as how infant mortality was viewed in the middle
ages. Traditional medicine "messes up" with nature as much as GMO solutions do.
Furthermore, side effects are an issue in both cases and should be checked and
resolved, rather than looked at as a reason to drop GMO methods.
GMOs have been used in agriculture for some time now and the luddites against
biotechnology vehemently oppose such methods, whereas these are the ways to
achieve accelerated returns in agriculture and also the same way we need to seek
solutions to the health care impasse (1).
With the developments of genetics it is time to support the research into GMO
solutions in medicine, specifically in vitro fertilization and screening
before birth and gene therapy later in life. Translational research can focus on
mouse and cell models to reach clinical trials on humans as quickly as possible.
Avoiding disease the same way a group of centenarians live all their life
without going to doctor is the best way to solve the healthcare dilemma. In such
a condition, health insurance would only be needed for accidents when one
suffers injury because of a car accident or a tree falling on one’s head.
Genomics-based studies that identify ‘longevity’ genes would further benefit GMO
solutions toward increasing life expectancy and contributing to radical life
extension in the near future.
Sam Ghandchi, Editor/Publisher
IRANSCOPE
September 10, 2012
Footnotes:
1. http://www.kurzweilai.net/accelerated-returns-in-food-production