Present situation and trend of ethical governance in life sciences

1. General situation of ethical governance in the field of life sciences

For every breakthrough technology in the life sciences, For example, the first successful isolation and in vitro culture of human embryonic stem cells in 1998, the birth of the first "synthetic life cell" in 2010, the first application of CRISPR gene editing technology in human embryo editing in 2015, and the successful pig kidney transplantation test in human beings in 2021, etc. All these have aroused people's widespread concern about relevant ethical and social issues, and thus promoted or promoted the construction of ethical governance systems in countries around the world, including the introduction and optimization of relevant laws and regulations, as well as the improvement of relevant ethical review systems. However, in general, there is a time lag in relevant ethical research in the field of life sciences, and the research intensity is far from catching up with the rapid development of scientific research.

The development of new technologies in the field of life sciences is accelerating, and related ethical issues continue to attract attention

From test-tube baby to assisted reproduction, from embryonic stem cells to human cloning, from synthetic biology to gene-edited embryos, every time the field of life science produces breakthrough results and shows great application potential, it will trigger a series of ethical issues based on their different scientific principles and application scenarios.

Take gene editing technology as an example, although the potential scientific value of this technology has been widely recognized, its complex ethical and safety disputes have always been in the hot spot of public opinion. Due to the complexity of the target, the sensitivity of the technology itself, as well as many uncertainties and unexpected effects on health, environment, economy, society and other aspects, the ethical risks that gene editing may cause are multifaceted. With the deepening of gene-editing technology research represented by CRISPR-Cas9, scientists have begun to try to test on human eggs, sperm and even embryos, and the ethical issues of gene-editing technology have become more compelling. In particular, the world's first "gene-edited baby" was born in China in 2018, which aroused wide attention from academia and society at home and abroad, triggered huge disputes over the ethics and regulatory issues of gene editing technology, and pushed the ethical concerns of gene editing to a peak. At the same time, the biosecurity issues that gene editing technology may bring are also attracting attention from all parties. For example, in the 2016 U.S. Intelligence Community Annual Global Threat Assessment Report, gene editing was included in the list of threats to "weapons of mass destruction and proliferation", arguing that this dual-use technology is widely distributed, low cost, and rapidly developing, and any intentional or unintentional misuse could raise national security issues.

In addition to gene-editing technology, cross-species chimera research is progressing rapidly, and ethical issues continue to cause controversy. Due to the extreme lack of global organ transplant resources, by implanting human pluripotent stem cells into the embryos of other animals, "breeding" human organs on the chimera of cross-species chimeras, culture to obtain the needed organs, has become the most attractive technology in the field of regenerative medicine. As early as 2016, Science selected the top 20 technology predictions, human-animal chimera technology is among them. At the end of November 2019, the world's first "pig monkey chimera" was born; In 2021, the world's first "human-monkey chimera" embryo was born, unveiling the "black box" of human embryo development after implantation.

Although cross-species chimera research has great value, it also has great potential ethical risks, among which the most controversial question is the boundary of chimera research. Some scholars believe that germ cells and nerve cells are the ethical boundaries of human-animal chimeras. Countries such as the United States and Spain allow the creation of human-animal chimeras as long as the chimeras are not capable of reproduction and do not develop brains. In view of the research on "human-monkey chimerism", Chinese zoologist Ji Weizhi believes that human-monkey chimerism embryos are by no means human-monkey hybridization - human-monkey chimerism embryos are monkey embryos as human stem cell development environment, and reproductive chimerism does not occur in essence, which is not contrary to ethics. Alfonso Martinez Arias, a Spanish developmental biologist, believes that research with cows and pigs "has more potential and does not risk challenging ethical boundaries" than with monkeys. At the same time, scientists also stressed that the current research only stays in the stage of in vitro experiments, if the human and animal chimera into the body experiment, implanted into the animal, and finally developed into a certain organism, the consequences are unimaginable.