Table 4.

Examples of ethics, environment, economic, and legal themes in questions.

Theme	Example	Year
Change to society	[…] With gene therapy and other genetic research going on out there I’m sure scientists will know how to turn off the “aging gene or genes” sooner or later. […] I’m sure there are benefits and unforseen side effects on the human body and in civilization in general.	2007
Effects on self	Do you think the tendency toward fundamentalism is genetic? If so, could gene therapy wipe this disease out […]?	2007
God and religion	Do atheists need genetic therapy? There has been a discovery of a “faith” gene in scientific research that theorizes faith could be genetic. Could this be the “mark” that is talked about in the Bible?	2010
Resource allocation	[…] I have to have 3 bioethical issues to discuss, and I can’t find anything other than, death from trials of gene therapy, and that only the rich can benefit. […]	2009
Discrimination and equity	[…] But if scientists were to take [gene therapy] a step further and maybe alter genes to have perfect vision, better immune system, change genes to make a child taller, etc. If this was done successfully and it was applied to many child or embryos, would it be right to say that child that did not have gene therapy to get superior genes be inferior in a way? Then could they be considered to be a sub-class of humans […]?	2008
Against nature	If you were pregnant and found out your baby was going to be retarded, […] and the doctor told you that with experimental gene therapy it could be fixed while still in the womb by manipulating a single gene, would you do it? Or would you let nature run its course?	2009
Evolution	How cloning, gene therapy, and other technologies affect evolution?	2009