人类克隆辩论中的语言与价值观：一项针对科学家和基督教原教旨主义牧师的网络调查

Weasel Lisa H, Jensen Eric

Departments of Biology and Communication, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97201, USA.

New Genet Soc. 2005 Apr;24(1):1-14. doi: 10.1080/14636770500037552.

Over the last seven years, a major debate has arisen over whether human cloning should remain legal in the United States. Given that this may be the 'first real global and simultaneous news story on biotechnology' (Einsiedel et al., 2002, p.313), nations around the world have struggled with the implications of this newly viable scientific technology, which is often also referred to as somatic cell nuclear transfer. Since the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997, and with increasing media attention paid to the likelihood of a successful human reproductive clone coupled with research suggesting the medical potential of therapeutic cloning in humans, members of the scientific community and Christian fundamentalist leaders have become increasingly vocal in the debate over U.S. policy decisions regarding human cloning (Wilmut, 2000). Yet despite a surfeit of public opinion polls and widespread opining in the news media on the topic of human cloning, there have been no empirical studies comparing the views of scientists and Christian fundamentalists in this debate (see Evans, 2002a for a recent study of opinion polls assessing religion and attitudes toward cloning). In order to further investigate the values that underlie scientists' and Christian fundamentalist leader's understanding of human cloning, as well as their differential use of language in communicating about this issue, we conducted an open-ended, exploratory survey of practicing scientists in the field of molecular biology and Christian fundamentalist pastors. We then analyzed the responses from this survey using qualitative discourse analysis. While this was not necessarily a representative sample (in quantitative terms, see Gaskell & Bauer, 2000) of each of the groups and the response rate was limited, this approach was informative in identifying both commonalities between the two groups, such as a focus on ethical concerns about reproductive cloning and the use of scientific terminology, as well as significant differences including concerns over 'playing God' for the Christian pastors, focus on therapeutic cloning by scientists, and subtle but informative differences between the two groups in their use of scientific terminology and their interpretations of human cloning as scientific progress.

在过去七年里，关于人类克隆在美国是否应继续合法存在引发了一场重大辩论。鉴于这可能是“生物技术领域首个真正意义上的全球同步新闻事件”（艾因西德尔等人，2002年，第313页），世界各国都在努力应对这项新出现的可行科学技术所带来的影响，这项技术通常也被称为体细胞核移植。自1997年多利羊成功克隆以来，随着媒体越来越关注人类生殖性克隆成功的可能性，以及研究表明治疗性克隆在人类医学方面的潜力，科学界成员和基督教原教旨主义领袖在关于美国人类克隆政策决策的辩论中愈发直言不讳（威尔穆特，2000年）。然而，尽管有大量关于人类克隆主题的民意调查，且新闻媒体也广泛发表了相关意见，但在这场辩论中，尚未有实证研究比较科学家和基督教原教旨主义者的观点（关于评估宗教与对克隆态度的民意调查的近期研究，见埃文斯，2002a）。为了进一步探究科学家和基督教原教旨主义领袖对人类克隆理解背后的价值观，以及他们在谈论这个问题时语言使用的差异，我们对分子生物学领域的在职科学家和基督教原教旨主义牧师进行了一项开放式的探索性调查。然后，我们使用定性话语分析来分析该调查的回复。虽然这不一定是每个群体的代表性样本（从定量角度看，见加斯克尔和鲍尔，2000年），且回复率有限，但这种方法有助于识别两组之间的共性，比如对生殖性克隆伦理问题的关注和科学术语的使用，也有助于发现显著差异，包括基督教牧师对“扮演上帝”的担忧、科学家对治疗性克隆的关注，以及两组在科学术语使用和将人类克隆解释为科学进步方面的细微但有意义的差异。