导读:你赞成通过基因编程预防疾病吗？

HONG KONG – A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies – twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.

香港电 中国一名研究人员声称，他帮助制造了世上首例基因编辑婴儿。据其介绍，他用一种强大、全新的工具改变了一对于本月出生的双胞胎女孩的DNA。该工具能够改写生命的蓝图。

If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

如果消息属实，这将是科学和伦理的一个巨大飞跃。

A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.

美国一位科学家表示，他在中国参与了这一工作。由于DNA变异可以遗传后代，并有损害其他基因的风险，此类基因编辑在美国是被禁止的。

Many mainstream scientists think it’s too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation.

很多主流科学家认为，尝试基因编辑太不安全。他们当中一些人谴责中国的这一报道为人体实验。

The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have – an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV, the AIDS virus.

深圳研究员何建奎表示，他为七对正在生育治疗期间的夫妇改变了胚胎。他称，他的目标不是治愈或预防某种遗传疾病，而是尝试给予鲜有人天生就有的某种特征——一种未来能够抵御艾滋病毒的能力。

He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and he would not say where they live or where the work was done.

他透露，涉事父母不愿透露姓名或接受采访，他不会说出他们生活的地方，以及此项工作开展的地方。

Some scientists were astounded to hear of the claim and strongly condemned it.

一些科学家听到这一说法感到震惊，并进行了强烈谴责。

It’s “unconscionable … an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible,” said Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal.

宾夕法尼亚大学(University of Pennsylvania)基因编辑专家、某遗传学杂志编辑基兰·穆斯努鲁(Kiran Musunuru)博士表示：“这是不合情理的……在人类身上进行实验在道德或伦理上都站不住脚。”

However, one famed geneticist, Harvard University’s George Church, defended attempting gene editing for HIV, which he called “a major and growing public health threat.”

然而，哈佛大学(Harvard University)著名遗传学家乔治·丘奇(George Church)为试图进行基因编辑抵御艾滋病毒进行了辩护。

“I think this is justifiable,” Church said of that goal.

“我认为这是合理的，”丘奇在谈到这一目标时说道。

（来源：爱语吧）