Goff Anne Le, Landecker Hannah
Hastings Cent Rep. 2025 Mar;55(2):39-51. doi: 10.1002/hast.4977.
Concerns about the human germline in the context of genome editing have been at the forefront of contemporary bioethics, with the clear recognition that the heritability associated with such intervention merits special moral consideration. In contrast, the question of moral responsibility for modifications of the germline genome that result from anthropogenic environmental toxicants has received little attention. Yet, whether the impact of human technological activity on enduring shifts in human heredity occurs via purposeful genetic modification or nondirected changes that undermine genome stability, the result is irreversible genetic change in future generations. This article argues that the robust ethical reflection developed by the bioethics community to address human heritable genome editing can be used as a resource to address understudied questions of moral responsibility for anthropogenic insults to the germline. Drawing on this bioethics work, the article outlines a future-oriented ethical framework for germline responsibility in a time of widespread concern about industrial chemicals and human futures.
在基因组编辑背景下对人类生殖系的担忧一直处于当代生物伦理学的前沿，人们清楚地认识到，与这种干预相关的可遗传性值得特别的道德考量。相比之下，由人为环境毒物导致的生殖系基因组改变的道德责任问题却很少受到关注。然而，无论人类技术活动对人类遗传的持久变化的影响是通过有目的的基因改造还是通过破坏基因组稳定性的非定向变化而发生，其结果都是后代不可逆转的基因变化。本文认为，生物伦理学界为应对人类可遗传基因组编辑而开展的深入伦理思考可作为一种资源，用于解决对生殖系的人为损害所涉及的、尚未得到充分研究的道德责任问题。借鉴这项生物伦理学工作，本文勾勒出一个面向未来的伦理框架，以应对在人们广泛关注工业化学品和人类未来之际的生殖系责任问题。
