van Tongeren P J
Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, Faculteit Der Wijsbegeerte, The Netherlands.
Hum Gene Ther. 1991 Spring;2(1):71-5. doi: 10.1089/hum.1991.2.1-71.
"Manipulation" per se is not bad. The crucial question in the moral debate about genetic engineering is: When and how are we allowed to manipulate? Unfortunately, the moral discussion surrounding this question is itself being manipulated. There are moral manipulations (by those who wish to either reassure or to alarm) and there are ethical manipulations (the failed utilitarian calculus and the centering of the discussion only around rules, rights, and duties). A different ethical approach is needed: one based on virtues. The duty of ethics is to help us understand the moral possibilities in each situation, i.e., to develop our moral sensibility. In the area of genetic engineering research we are motivated by a will to know, but at the same time we fear total self knowledge. We want to control, to improve our world and ourselves, but we recoil at obtaining ultimate perfection. Therefore, we must value the unknowable, the uncontrollable. Our everincreasing capacity to mould the world and ourselves is making it more difficult to develop a sensitivity for what is given and cannot be made. It is dangerous for our ethics to assume the activistic traits of our technology. We risk losing a fundamental element of what we are, or ought to be. We should train ourselves in moral passivity.
“操纵”本身并非坏事。关于基因工程的道德辩论中的关键问题是：我们何时以及如何被允许进行操纵？不幸的是，围绕这个问题的道德讨论本身也在被操纵。存在道德操纵（由那些要么想让人安心要么想让人警觉的人进行），也存在伦理操纵（功利主义计算的失败以及讨论仅围绕规则、权利和义务展开）。需要一种不同的伦理方法：一种基于美德的方法。伦理学的职责是帮助我们理解每种情况下的道德可能性，即培养我们的道德敏感性。在基因工程研究领域，我们受求知欲的驱使，但同时又害怕完全了解自己。我们想要控制、改善我们的世界和我们自己，但又对实现终极完美畏缩不前。因此，我们必须重视不可知的、无法控制的东西。我们塑造世界和我们自己的能力不断增强，这使得培养对既定的、无法制造的事物的敏感性变得更加困难。让我们的伦理学具有我们技术的激进主义特征是危险的。我们有可能失去我们是什么或应该是什么的一个基本要素。我们应该培养自己的道德被动性。
