Germ-Line Engineering and Three Concepts of Human Nature

拟议的项目力求对在关于人类基因工程前景的辩论中经常提到的三种想法进行概念和规范分析。这些概念是：1）“智人”（一个生物物种概念）; 2）“人”（一个伦理和法律的概念）; 3）“人”（一个文化和美学概念）。研究者们认为，在对人类基因组技术干预可能性的辩论中出现的这些概念的哲学澄清，可以加强当代对人类基因组计划的伦理、法律的和社会影响的讨论。该项目将审查和评估越来越多的文献生殖细胞干预和人性之间的差异，这三个概念。该项目将产生哲学分析， 这将阐明对生殖系工程的可能限制，这些限制可能是合理的，因为它们可以保持个人作为历史物种成员的特征或地位，拥有自由意志或道德责任，最重要的是，作为人类共享文化身份。该项目的具体目标是：1）分析与人类本性相关的属性-或我们共同的人性的各个方面-生殖系工程的限制可能会寻求保护或保存; 2）展示如何根据三个不同概念之间的逻辑关系来分析和澄清关于人类本性的假设：智人，人类和人; 3）将一系列文章与其他文章、会议报告和政策相关的文章一起收集成册，沿着。 这些论文将分析和评估那些呼吁将这三个概念中的任何一个作为规范性原则或理由来禁止或管制将遗传技术应用于人类基因组的提案。

The proposed project seeks to provide conceptual and normative analyses of three ideas that are often invoked in debates over the prospects of human genetic engineering. These concepts are: 1) "Homo sapiens" (a biological species concept); 2) "person" (an ethical and a legal concept); and 3) "human being" (a cultural and aesthetic concept). The Investigators believe that philosophical clarification of these concepts as they arise in debates over the possibility of technological interventions into the human genome can strengthen contemporary discussion of ethical, legal, and social implications of the Human Genome Project. The project would review and assess the growing literature on germ-line intervention and human nature in relation to the differences among these three concepts. The project would produce philosophical analyses that will explicate possible limits on germ-line engineering that may be justified in terms of maintaining the character or status of individuals as members of a historical species, as possessing free will or moral responsibility, and -- most importantly -- as sharing a cultural identity as human beings. The project aims specifically 1) To analyze the properties associated with human nature - or the aspects of our shared humanity -- that restrictions on germ-line engineering may seek to protect or preserve; 2) To show how assumptions about human nature can be analyzed and clarified in terms of logical relationships among three different concepts: Homo sapiens, human being, and person; and 3) To produce a series of essays to be collected into a book, along with other articles, conference presentations, and policy-related papers, which will analyze and evaluate proposals that appeal to any of these three concepts as normative principles or reasons to ban or regulate applications of genetic technologies to the human genome.