Abstract
In recent years, gene editing is increasingly used as one of the technical means to solve public health problems. The great progress made in the field of life science and gene-editing technology has made it possible for humans to control and alter human physiological characteristics through gene-editing technology and created a broad application prospect for this technology. However, gene-editing technology has faced with many significant ethical risks, and human gene editing experiments have been banned for a long time in the past. Realistic technological breakthroughs and the emergence of real cases force the ethics circle to re-examine this issue. Through the analysis and trade-off of the potential benefits and ethical risks of human gene-editing technology, it can be found that different applications of human gene editing for different purposes are considered to have different acceptability. Among them, human gene editing for medical purposes has no fundamental moral barriers, human gene editing for purposes of enhancement cannot be allowed by ethics and reality in the current social environment, and human gene editing for purposes of transformation fundamentally violates ethical norms. Therefore, gene editing can be allowed if it is only used to solve human medical and public health problems.
Highlights
Human genetic gene-editing has been considered as an ethical forbidden zone in human science for a long time
The ethical risk that gene-editing technology is suspected of endangering the dignity of human life is proved to be unfounded, and the risk that gene-editing technology infringes the right of the edited person to have an open future is only true in gene editing for the purpose of modification
The development of gene-editing technology and the improvement of relevant social systems will help to eliminate the uncontrollable risks brought by gene-editing technology itself and the ethical risks of undermining social fairness and justice brought by gene-editing technology for medical and public health purposes
Summary
Human genetic gene-editing has been considered as an ethical forbidden zone in human science for a long time. The most basic ethical constraint on research involving humans is that it should not expose participants to unreasonable risk[1]. With the development of life sciences and the human desire for a better life, the further ethical discussion of human gene-editing technology has become much more urgent than ever before. When people are faced with human medical and public health problems, whether gene editing as a promising technical means should be limited by medical ethics. This article will attempt to analyze the potential benefits and ethical risks of gene-editing technology and discuss the possible measures of dissolving the risk and ethical red lines that must be carefully treated. Under the background that people generally hold a cautious attitude towards gene editing, whether the gene editing used in the field of human medicine and public health can pass the test of medical ethics
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