Palacios-González César
Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, UK.
Med Health Care Philos. 2017 Dec;20(4):503-511. doi: 10.1007/s11019-017-9772-3.
This paper examines whether there are moral differences between the mitochondrial replacement techniques that have been recently developed in order to help women afflicted by mitochondrial DNA diseases to have genetically related children absent such conditions: maternal spindle transfer (MST) and pronuclear transfer (PNT). Firstly, it examines whether there is a moral difference between MST and PNT in terms of the divide between somatic interventions and germline interventions. Secondly, it considers whether PNT and MST are morally distinct under a therapy/creation optic. Finally, it investigates whether there is a moral difference between MST and PNT from a human embryo destruction point of view. I conclude, contra recent arguments, that regarding the first two points there is no moral differences between PNT and MST; and that regarding the third one MST is morally preferable to PNT, but only if we hold a gradualist account of the moral value of human embryos where zygotes have slight moral value.
本文探讨了为帮助患有线粒体DNA疾病的女性在无此类疾病的情况下生育有基因关联的孩子而新近开发的线粒体替代技术(即母本纺锤体转移(MST)和原核转移(PNT))之间是否存在道德差异。首先,从体细胞干预和生殖细胞干预的区分角度,考察MST和PNT之间是否存在道德差异。其次,在治疗/创造的视角下,考虑PNT和MST在道德上是否有区别。最后,从人类胚胎破坏的角度,研究MST和PNT之间是否存在道德差异。我得出结论,与近期的观点相反,在前两点上,PNT和MST之间不存在道德差异;而在第三点上,只有当我们持有一种认为人类胚胎的道德价值是渐进的、受精卵只有轻微道德价值的观点时,MST在道德上才比PNT更可取。