Gyngell Christopher, Christodoulou John, Savulescu Julian
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
NPJ Genom Med. 2021 May 10;6(1):31. doi: 10.1038/s41525-021-00194-9.
Genetic variants that influence susceptibility to COVID-19 have recently been identified. In this manuscript, we identify and discuss some of the ethical and practical issues raised by these studies. We first outline the ethical case for providing COVID-19 susceptibility testing to healthcare workers, as well as highlighting risks associated with privacy and discrimination. We then argue that the existence of genetically susceptible individuals has implications for the ethical conduct of COVID-19 human challenge trials. Finally, we discuss the ethical issues that could arise from other COVID-19 host–genome interactions, including the prospect of personalized vaccines.
最近已确定了影响对新冠病毒易感性的基因变异。在本论文中，我们识别并讨论了这些研究引发的一些伦理和实际问题。我们首先概述了为医护人员提供新冠病毒易感性检测的伦理依据，同时强调了与隐私和歧视相关的风险。然后我们认为，基因易感个体的存在对新冠病毒人体挑战试验的伦理行为具有影响。最后，我们讨论了其他新冠病毒宿主-基因组相互作用可能引发的伦理问题，包括个性化疫苗的前景。
