Lev Ori, Miller Franklin G, Emanuel Ezekiel J
Department of Bioethics, Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Kennedy Inst Ethics J. 2010 Jun;20(2):101-13. doi: 10.1353/ken.0.0314.
Biomedical enhancement interventions to make people stronger, smarter, and happier are currently being developed. Research to assess these enhancements should be conducted before their introduction into clinical practice. But, many worry that enhancement research is unethical. Some contend that the practice of biomedical enhancements is unethical; accordingly, research that enables such practice would be unethical. Others suggest that research on enhancement interventions does not promote health, exposing research participants to risks with no potential compensating health benefits either to themselves or to society. Categorically condemning research on biomedical enhancements as unethical is unwarranted, however, since at least some research on biomedical enhancements is likely to produce significant health benefits. Indeed, under certain circumstances enhancement research would be urgent, as it would address major public health concerns. Therefore, a blanket prohibition on enhancement research is unjustified. Instead, like any other clinical research, each proposed enhancement study should be reviewed individually to assess whether it fulfills the ethical requirements that make a clinical study permissible.
目前正在研发旨在使人更强壮、更聪明、更快乐的生物医学增强干预措施。在将这些增强措施引入临床实践之前，应该进行评估它们的研究。但是，许多人担心增强研究是不道德的。一些人认为生物医学增强的做法是不道德的；因此，使这种做法成为可能的研究也将是不道德的。另一些人则认为，关于增强干预措施的研究并不能促进健康，会让研究参与者面临风险，而对他们自己或社会都没有潜在的补偿性健康益处。然而，将生物医学增强研究一概谴责为不道德是没有根据的，因为至少一些关于生物医学增强的研究可能会产生重大的健康益处。事实上，在某些情况下，增强研究将是紧迫的，因为它将解决重大的公共卫生问题。因此，全面禁止增强研究是不合理的。相反，与任何其他临床研究一样，每项提议的增强研究都应单独进行审查，以评估它是否符合使临床研究被允许的伦理要求。
