定制宝宝基因：继承父母所有优点

Letting parents use new gene-editing technology to pick characteristics of their unborn child can be “morally acceptable” as long as it doesn’t increase social inequalities, an influential medical ethics group has said.

某颇具影响力的医疗伦理集团称，让父母通过基因编辑技术塑造胎儿，这件事儿“从道德层面讲可以接受”，前提是不引发社会不公。

In a major report on the looming frontier of human gene-editing, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCB) said it did not believe there was an ethical red line in tinkering with the genetic material that will be passed to future generations.

英国Nuffield生物伦理集团（NCB）在隐约涉及人类基因编辑的报告中说，NCB认为，调整基因和下一代之间并无伦理警戒线。

It also did not draw a distinction between using these techniques to tackle genetic diseases and for enhancing desirable physical or intellectual traits, so-called “designer babies”, so long as it meets strict ethical and regulatory tests.

在用基因编辑解决基因疾病和提升人的身体素质、智力因素方面，NCB并没有画出明显的边界线，也就是说，“定制宝宝”只要满足伦理界限和常规检查，它就可以存在。

The group, which appraises the ethical realities of new technology, called for the government to begin canvassing national opinion and said copies of the report would be sent to ministers and civil servants.

NCB负责评估这项新技术的伦理可行性，该组织号召政府说服民众，还表示会将报告发给各位大臣和所有公民。

UK law does not currently permit any editing of heritable DNA – genetic information contained in an embryo, egg or sperm – though it is allowed for strictly controlled research purposes.

目前，英国法律并不允许应用基因编辑去改造可遗传基因（即存在于胚胎、卵子和精子内的遗传信息），但是允许严格的实验室环境中做实验。

Even this, however, is hugely controversial and could have implications for people with diseases or less “desirable” traits if they become less common. Any change to the law would have to be subject to a national public debate and parliamentary legislation, as well as extensive testing for the safety of gene editing, the NCB said.

即使如此也引起了轩然大波，如果基因疾病减少，可能会引发对患病者或“不那么完美”的人的歧义。NCB说，法律的任何变更都要通过民众辩论和国会立法来决定，基因编辑的安全性也需要持之以恒的测试。

But a change is needed as we continue to expand our understanding of the human genome, and which gene instructions affect different diseases and traits. The arrival of precision genetic editing techniques like crispr has made correcting damaged or undesirable genes a real possibility.

但是随着人类增进对基因组的了解，必须做出改变。基因结构影响多种疾病和人的特性。像基因剪刀crispr这样精准的基因编辑技术使得修复损坏基因或是不良基因成为可能。

Professor Karen Yeung, chair of the NCB report group, a law and ethics expert at the University of Birmingham, said these advances could have “profound consequences [which] affect the genetic make-up of society".

NCB报告小组组长凯瑞·杨是伯明翰大学法律伦理专家，他说基因编辑技术上的进步可能会“带来深远影响，会改变整个社会的基因构造。”

“There was an enormous range of views, including that we should not do this as to do this would be to take a step humanity should not take,” Prof Yeung said.

“大家众说纷纭，有人说不应该踏入人类禁区。”

“We thought quite hard about this and came to the view that, in and of itself, intervening in the heritable genome would not be morally objectionable.”

“我们对这件事讨论了很久，得出结论，干扰可遗传基因组在道德方面上是可行的。”

Any ethical debate will also naturally run against practicalities like funding. Many patients already report a postcode lottery in accessing IVF and fertility treatment based on their local NHS funding, and gene editing could initially be out of reach for all but the richest.

任何有关伦理的辩论最终都会和基金这样的形式形成对立面。很多患者在用当地的国家医疗服务体系尝试试管婴儿和生育治疗时遭到反对，只有富豪才能进行基因编辑。

On this matter Professor Yeung said if funding inequalities “were to exacerbate social injustice, in our view that would not be an ethical approach”.

针对此事，杨教授说，如果基金不公“会激化社会偏见，我们觉得这可能不是伦理能解决的问题”。

（翻译：阿忙）