de Mori Barbara, Spiriti Maria Michela, Pollastri Ilaria, Normando Simona, Biasetti Pierfrancesco, Florio Daniela, Andreucci Francesco, Colleoni Silvia, Galli Cesare, Göritz Frank, Hermes Robert, Holtze Susanne, Lazzari Giovanna, Seet Steven, Zwilling Jan, Stejskal Jan, Mutisya Samuel, Ndeereh David, Ngulu Stephen, Vigne Richard, Hildebrandt Thomas B
Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, 35020 Padua, Italy.
Ethics Laboratory for Veterinary Medicine, Conservation and Animal Welfare, University of Padua, 35020 Padua, Italy.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Jan 26;11(2):312. doi: 10.3390/ani11020312.
Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) can make a difference in biodiversity conservation. Their application, however, can create risks and raise ethical issues that need addressing. Unfortunately, there is a lack of attention to the topic in the scientific literature and, to our knowledge, there is no tool for the ethical assessment of ARTs in the context of conservation that has been described. This paper reports the first applications of the Ethical Assessment Tool (ETHAS) to trans-rectal ovum pick-up (OPU) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures used in a northern white rhinoceros () conservation project. The ETHAS consists of two checklists, the Ethical Evaluation Sheet and the Ethical Risk Assessment, and is specifically customized for each ART procedure. It provides an integrated, multilevel and standardized self-assessment of the procedure under scrutiny, generating an ethical acceptability ranking (totally, partially, not acceptable) and a risk rank (low, medium, high), and, hence, allows for implementing measures to address or manage issues beforehand. The application of the ETHAS to the procedures performed on the northern white rhinoceros was effective in ensuring a high standard of procedures, contributing to the acceptability and improved communication among the project's partners. In turn, the tool itself was also refined through an iterative consultation process between experts and stakeholders.
辅助生殖技术（ARTs）可为生物多样性保护带来改变。然而，其应用可能带来风险并引发一些需要解决的伦理问题。遗憾的是，科学文献中对该主题缺乏关注，而且据我们所知，尚无已描述的用于在保护背景下对辅助生殖技术进行伦理评估的工具。本文报告了伦理评估工具（ETHAS）在北方白犀牛保护项目中经直肠采卵（OPU）和体外受精（IVF）程序中的首次应用。ETHAS由两份清单组成，即伦理评估表和伦理风险评估，并且针对每个辅助生殖技术程序进行了专门定制。它对受审查的程序提供了综合、多层次和标准化的自我评估，生成伦理可接受性排名（完全、部分、不可接受）和风险等级（低、中、高），从而能够预先采取措施来解决或管理相关问题。将ETHAS应用于北方白犀牛所实施的程序，有效地确保了程序的高标准，有助于提高项目合作伙伴之间的可接受性并改善沟通。反过来，该工具本身也通过专家与利益相关者之间的反复协商过程得到了完善。
