我们离转基因人类有多远?

2014-10-08 16:59:17来源：可可英语

　　And the O.H.S.U. researchers themselves report a difference between their experience with themacaques and their work so far on fertilized human eggs. More than half of the human zygotes— single cells formed by the merging of an egg and sperm — had abnormalities not observed inthe fertilized eggs of the monkeys. "It looks like human oocytes are more sensitive," the leadresearcher, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive biologist, told Nature.

　　该大学的研究人员自己也在报告中提到，这次猕猴实验和他们迄今用受过精的人类卵子进行的研究是有差异的。超过一半的人类受精卵——卵子和精子结合形成的单个细胞——出现了在猴子受精卵中没有观察到的异常。“看起来人类的卵细胞更敏感，”生殖生物学家、本次研究的首席研究员舒哈拉特·米塔利波夫(ShoukhratMitalipov)对《自然》(Nature)杂志说。

　　Some media accounts about these techniques have misleadingly referred to "saving lives," as ifthey were aimed at people who are sick and suffering. Others have failed to note how very fewwomen would be candidates for even considering them. And they could turn to safer andsimpler alternatives. An affected woman could adopt or use in vitro fertilization with anotherwoman's eggs. Of course, the resulting child would not be genetically related to her, butneither would the child be put at grave risk by an extreme procedure.

　　部分媒体在报道中误导性地称之为“救命的”技术，仿佛它们面向的是受病痛困扰的人。还有一些报道没能明确一点，要去考虑使用这些技术的女性少之又少。她们有更安全、更简单的方案可选。患病的女性可以选择领养，或使用另一名女性的卵子进行体外受精。当然，这样一来她和孩子将不存在基因上的关联，但同时也让孩子免于承担极端手段带来的可怕风险。

　　The F.D.A. advisory panel says that its meeting will consider only scientific aspects ofmitochondrial manipulation and that any "ethical and social policy issues" are outside itsscope. But those are precisely the issues that we must address. Simply being able to dosomething doesn't mean we should do it.

　　FDA顾问专家组称，此次会议对线粒体操作的思考将仅限于科学层面，任何“伦理和社会政策问题”都不在关注范畴内。然而我们需要面对的恰恰就是这些问题。具备做某件事的能力并不等于我们就应该去做它。

本文关键字: 我们离转基因人类有多远?