Department of Biomedical Engineering, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University, 500 West 120th Street, New York, NY, 10027, USA.
Department of Pathology, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, 630 West 168 Street, Room 1111, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2019 Oct;25(5):1409-1423. doi: 10.1007/s11948-018-0069-6. Epub 2018 Oct 24.
The bioethical principle of autonomy is problematic regarding the future of the embryo who lacks the ability to self-advocate but will develop this defining human capacity in time. Recent experiments explore the use of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 for germline engineering in the embryo, which alters future generations. The embryo's inability to express an autonomous decision is an obvious bioethical challenge of germline engineering. The philosopher Joel Feinberg acknowledged that autonomy is developing in children. He advocated that to reserve this future autonomy, parents should be guided to make ethical decisions that provide children with open futures. Here, Feinberg's 1980 open future theory is extended to the human embryo in the context of CRISPR germline engineering. Although the embryo does not possess the autonomous decision-making capacity at the time of germline engineering, the parental decision to permanently change the unique genetic fabric of the embryo and subsequent generations disregards future autonomy. Therefore, germline engineering in many instances is objectionable considering Feinberg's open future theory.
自主的生物伦理原则在胚胎的未来方面存在问题，因为胚胎缺乏自我主张的能力，但随着时间的推移会发展出这种定义人类的能力。最近的实验探索了使用成簇规律间隔短回文重复序列 (CRISPR)/Cas9 对胚胎进行种系工程改造，这会改变后代。胚胎无法表达自主决策是种系工程改造的明显生物伦理挑战。哲学家乔尔·范伯格承认，自主性正在儿童中发展。他主张，为了保留这种未来的自主性，应该引导父母做出伦理决策，为孩子提供开放的未来。在这里，范伯格 1980 年的开放未来理论在 CRISPR 种系工程的背景下扩展到人类胚胎。尽管胚胎在种系工程改造时没有自主决策能力，但父母决定永久改变胚胎和随后几代人的独特遗传结构，忽视了未来的自主性。因此，考虑到范伯格的开放未来理论，许多情况下种系工程改造是不可取的。
