Legal and Moral Implications of Cloning 克隆在法律与道德上的影响(中英互译)

Legal and Moral Implications of Cloning 克隆在法律与道德上的影响At first it was just plain surprising. Word that scientists succeeded in cloning an adult mammalan achievement long thought impossiblecaught the imagination of everyone. The laboratory process that produced Dolly, an unremarkable-looking sheep, theoretically would work for humans as well. A world with human clones was suddenly within reach. It was science fiction coming to life.起初，这对人们绝对是个震惊。有消息称科学家已经成功克隆了一只成年哺乳动物，一项长期以来被认为是不可能的成就。这一传闻引发了每个人的想象。克隆多莉（一只相貌无奇的绵羊）的实验过程，从理论上说也同样适用于克隆人类。一个克隆人的世界突然间近在咫尺，科幻小说变成了现实。In the wake of this announcement, governments hurried to draft guidelines for the unknown, a future filled with incredible possibilities. President Clinton ordered a national commission to study the legal and moral implications of cloning. Leaders in Europe, where most nations already prohibit human cloning, began examining the moral implications of cloning other species.此消息宣布之后，为了一个未知世界，一个充满各种不可思议的可能性的未来，各国政府立即起草指导方针。克林顿总统命令一个全国委员会研究克隆在法律和道德上的含义。在欧洲，大多数国家都已禁止克隆人类，各国领导此时也开始研究克隆其他物种的道德含义。Like the Theory of Relativity, the splitting of the atom, and the first space flight, Dollys appearance has generated a long list of difficult puzzles for scientists, politicians, and philosophers. And wild questions on the topic of cloning continue to mount. 就像相对论、原子裂变和第一次太空飞行一样，多莉的出现给科学家、政治家和哲学家们提出了一长串难以解答的难题。关于克隆的奇怪问题不断涌现。Why would anyone want to clone a human being in the first place?首先，为什么有人想克隆人类?The human cloning situations that experts consider most frequently fall into two broad categories: 1) parents who want to clone a child, either to provide transplants for a dying child or to replace that child, and 2) adults who for a variety of reasons might want to clone themselves.专家们考虑得最多的关于克隆人类的情形可以分为两大类：1)父母想要克隆孩子，要么是想为面临死亡威胁的孩子提供移植器官，要么是想代替那个孩子；2)成年人出于各种各样的原因想要克隆自己。Will it be possible to clone the dead?是否可能克隆死去的人?Perhaps, if the body is fresh, says one expert. The cloning method used requires combining an egg cell with the nucleus of a cell containing the DNA of the person to be cloned. (DNA is a very long, ribbon-like molecule that contains our genetic information.) And that means that the nucleus must be intact. Cells die and the cell nucleus begins to break apart after death. But, yes, in theory at least it might be possible.有位专家说，如果是刚死去不久，也许就可能。所使用的克隆方法要求将一个卵细胞和一个含有被克隆人的DNA的细胞核相结合。(DNA是一种含有我们的基因信息的狭长带状分子。) 这就意味着细胞核必须保持完整。而人死之后，细胞死亡，细胞核就开始分裂。但是，的确，至少从理论上说克隆死去的人是可能的。Would a cloned human be identical to the original?克隆的人会和母本一模一样吗?Identical genes dont produce identical people, as anyone who knows a set of identical twins can tell you. In fact, twins are more alike than clones would be, since they have at least shared the same environment within the mother, are usually raised in the same family, and so forth. Parents could clone a second child who resembled their first in appearance, but all the evidence suggests the two would have very different personalities. Twins separated at birth do sometimes share personality characteristics, but such characteristics in a cloned son or daughter would only be reminders of the child who was lost.相同的基因不会复制出相同的人。任何认识一些双胞胎的人都知道这一点。事实上，双胞胎相像的程度胜于克隆人，因为他们至少在母体内分享过相同的环境，通常也在同一个家庭里被抚养长大，等等。父母可能克隆出一个面貌与第一个孩子相似的人，但是所有的证据都表明，这两个人的个性会有很大差异。一出生就被分开的双胞胎，有时可能有相同的个性特征，但是这样的特征出现在克隆的儿子或女儿身上，却只能令人想起失去的孩子。Even in terms of biology, a clone would not be identical to the master copy. The clones cells, for example, would have energy-processing machinery that came from the egg, not from the person who was cloned. But most of the physical differences between originals and copies are so minor that detection of them would require a sophisticated laboratory. The one possible exception is bearing children. The scientists responsible for the successful cloning are not sure that Dolly will be able to have lambs. They will try to find out once shes old enough to breed.即使从生物学的角度看，克隆人也不会和“母本”一模一样。比如，克隆人的细胞可能会有来自卵子而非被克隆人的能量加工机制。然而，在母体和克隆体之间存在的身体差异大部分都很小，需要在设备精良的实验室里才能测定。唯一可能的例外就是生育能力。成功地实施了克隆多莉的科学家们也不敢肯定多莉是否能生育。他们会等到多莉到了生育年龄时再确认这一点。What if parents decided to clone a child in order to harvest organs?如果父母决定克隆一个孩子以获得器官，那会怎样?Most experts agree that it would be psychologically harmful if a child sensed he had been brought into the world simply as an organ donor. But some parents already produce second children with nonfatal transplants in mind, and many experts do not oppose this. Cloning would increase the chances for a tissue match from 25 percent to nearly 100 percent.多数专家都认为，如果一个孩子感到自己只是作为一个器官捐赠者来到这个世界，那他的心理可能受到伤害。但也有为了进行一些非致命器官的移植而生育第二个小孩的父母，对此许多专家也并不反对。克隆可以将组织适配率从25%提高到将近100%。If cloned animals could be used as organ donors, we wouldnt have to worry about cloning twins for transplants. Pigs, for example, have organs similar in size to humans. But the human body attacks and destroys tissue from other species. To get around that, one company is trying to alter the pigs genetic code to prevent pig organs from being attacked. If the companys technicians succeed, it may be more efficient to produce such pigs by cloning than by current methods.如果把被克隆的动物用作器官捐赠体，那我们就不必担心为器官移植而克隆双胞胎了。例如，猪的器官就和人类的差不多大小。但是人体会排斥并破坏来自其他物种的组织。为了克服这一障碍，一家公司正在试图改变猪的基因码，以避免猪的器官受到排斥。如果该公司的技术人员成功的话，那么用克隆技术来繁殖这样的猪比用现行的方法更为有效。How would a human clone refer to the donor of its DNA?克隆的人将如何称呼其DNA捐赠者?Mom is not right, because the woman who supplied the egg and gave birth to the infant would more appropriately be called Mother. Dad isnt right, either. A traditional father supplies only half the DNA in a child. Judith Martin, in her writings under the name of Miss Manners, suggests the phrase, Most honored sir or madam. Why? One should always respect ones ancestors, she says, regardless of what they did to bring one into the world.称呼“妈妈”不正确，因为提供卵子并生下婴孩的女子才更有资格被称为母亲。称呼“爸爸”也不对。传统意义上的父亲只提供孩子身上一半的DNA。朱迪斯马丁在用笔名“礼仪小姐”撰写的著作里建议这样称呼：“尊敬的先生/夫人”。为什么呢? “不论他们用什么方式将你带到这个世界，”她说，“人总得尊敬自己的祖先。”That still leaves some confusion over vocabulary. The editorial director of one dictionary says that the noun clonee may sound like a good term, but its not clear enough. Instead, he prefers original and copy.这样做还是留下了一些词汇上的难题。一本词典的主编说，名词“被克隆者”听起来不错，但却不够明晰。他更愿意用“母本”和“副本”。What are the other implications of cloning for society?克隆对社会还有什么其他含义?The gravest concern isnt really cloning itself, but genetic engineeringthe deliberate altering of genes to creat