Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Geneva, CMU, 1 rue Michel-Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
Bioethics. 2013 Oct;27(8):435-41. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12048.
Biotechnologies - synthetic biology in particular - are sometimes blamed for playing God or manifesting hubris, that is, for evincing the vicious attitude of transcending the limits of human agency. In trying to create living organisms, we would adopt an attitude that is immoral for human beings. In this article, I want to show that this blame is unwarranted. I distinguish two aspects of the argument, which claims that it is impossible for human beings to create life and immoral to attempt it. I argue that if we adopt a conception of what life consists of in agreement with the scientific world view, there is no place for hubris. Finally, I maintain that even if we accept a non-scientific conception of life (a vitalist or a supernatural one), we are not in a position to formulate the blame against synthetic biologists because what they do cannot contravene this vitalist or supernaturalist view.
生物技术——尤其是合成生物学——有时被指责为扮演上帝或表现出傲慢，也就是说，表现出超越人类能力极限的恶劣态度。在试图创造生物体时，我们将采取一种对人类来说不道德的态度。在本文中，我想表明这种指责是没有根据的。我区分了论点的两个方面，该论点声称人类不可能创造生命，尝试创造生命是不道德的。我认为，如果我们采用与科学世界观一致的生命概念，那么就没有傲慢的空间。最后，我认为，即使我们接受一种非科学的生命概念（活力论或超自然论），我们也不能对合成生物学家进行指责，因为他们的所作所为不会违反这种活力论或超自然论的观点。
