Every commercial break we see an advertisement for a

medicine to help suppress an illness or one to get rid

of the symptoms, and for the last few moments of the

advertisement the narrator rattles of dozen side effects

that are associated with each drug. Innumerable amounts

of time and money goes into finding cures for each

specific health problem. There is new hope, though, with

gene therapy. What is gene therapy? Gene therapy is

“the alteration of an afflicted person’s genes” (1). It

is a new treatment using an artificial virus to plant

new genes into the host in hopes that they may multiply

and eventually take dilute the abnormal tissue from the

affected area. Almost every disorder, disease, or

health problem can be traced back to the presence of a

single dysfunctional gene, from sickle cell anemia to

achondroplasia (4). Gene therapy works by replacing a

defective gene in a cell with an alternate gene, also

known as an allele. The somatic cells in the cancerous

area are treated and then multiply. These cells must be

permanent cells in order for the treatment to be

successful, such as bone marrow cells, which also

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