Davison James
a Department of Metabolic Medicine , Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust , London , UK.
New Bioeth. 2018 Apr;24(1):2-8. doi: 10.1080/20502877.2018.1443563.
Novel technological developments mean that gene editing - making deliberately targeted alterations in specific genes - is now a clinical reality. The inherited metabolic disorders, a group of clinically significant, monogenic disorders, provide a useful paradigm to explore some of the many ethical issues that arise from this technological capability. Fundamental questions about the significance of the genome, and of manipulating it by selection or editing, are reviewed, and a particular focus on the legislative process that has permitted the development of mitochondrial donation techniques is considered. Ultimately, decisions about what we should do with gene editing must be determined by reference to other non-genomic texts that determine what it is to be human - rather than simply to undertake gene editing because it can be done.
新的技术发展意味着基因编辑——对特定基因进行有意的靶向改变——如今已成为临床现实。遗传性代谢疾病是一组具有临床意义的单基因疾病，为探讨这项技术能力引发的诸多伦理问题提供了一个有用的范例。本文回顾了有关基因组的意义以及通过选择或编辑对其进行操控的一些基本问题，并特别关注了允许线粒体捐赠技术发展的立法过程。最终，关于我们应如何对待基因编辑的决策必须参照其他非基因组文本，这些文本决定了作为人类意味着什么——而不是仅仅因为能够进行基因编辑就去开展这项工作。
