Does It Matter Whether Genetic Intervention Is Therapy, Prevention, Remediation, or Enhancement?
What does it matter whether a genetic intervention is called therapy, prevention, remediation, or enhancement? First, there is the obvious matter of equal access to the intervention. How an intervention is categorized largely determines how accessible it is to all who wish to use it. Looking into the future of germline genetic interventions, those that are labeled therapy, prevention, or remediation stand a far better chance of being available to people who cannot pay for them out-of-pocket. If an intervention is categorized as an enhancement, it will probably not be thought to satisfy the therapeutic goals of medicine and, hence, will not be a reimbursable service. Under such conditions, termed genobility by 2 bioethicists, the rich will not only have more money than the rest of us, they ll be taller, smarter, and better looking, too. There is an individual therapy-enhancement matter that each physician will decide for himself and herself, and the question is not limited to genetics.
