Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA), Vienna Biocenter (VBC), 1030 Vienna, Austria.
Systems Bioengineering, DCEXS, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Doctor Aiguader 88 ICREA (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats), Barcelona, Spain.
Cell. 2023 Aug 17;186(17):3548-3557. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.07.028.
A human embryo's legal definition and its entitlement to protection vary greatly worldwide. Recently, human pluripotent stem cells have been used to form in vitro models of early embryos that have challenged legal definitions and raised questions regarding their usage. In this light, we propose a refined legal definition of an embryo, suggest "tipping points" for when human embryo models could eventually be afforded similar protection to that of embryos, and then revisit basic ethical principles that might help to draft a roadmap for the gradual, justified usage of embryo models in a manner that aims to maximize benefits to society.
人类胚胎的法律定义及其受保护的权利在全球范围内差异很大。最近，人类多能干细胞已被用于形成体外早期胚胎模型，这对法律定义提出了挑战，并引发了关于其使用的问题。有鉴于此，我们提出了一个经过改进的胚胎法律定义，建议确定“临界点”，以便最终使人类胚胎模型获得与胚胎类似的保护，并重新审视基本伦理原则，这些原则可能有助于为胚胎模型的逐步、合理使用制定路线图，以最大限度地造福社会。
