最新基因分析技术可以实现“定制孩子”，你会选择吗？【经济学人精讲】第450期

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本文选自《经济学人》11月9日文章。私人定制在当下越来越流行，你可以定制衣服、定制手机，但你有没有想过“定制孩子”？如果条件允许，你是否会定制一个聪明、漂亮、健康的孩子？这不是科幻，现在人类在生命科学领域越走越远，已俨然扮演起上帝的角色。转基因技术让人类获得更加饱满高产抗虫害的粮食，而美国的两家公司已经在研究如何优化孩子，让孩子拥有健康、长寿的最佳基因特征。该研究已经初有成效，通过他们的研究成果，父母可以挑选长得高、长得好看、最重要的是聪明的孩子，不过前提是能付得起费用。我相信从技术层面，人类可以实现“定制孩子”，你同意这样做吗？欢迎留言。

选文精讲

Designer babies by the back door 暗箱操作的定制婴儿

A new type of genetic profiling promises cleverer, better-looking children.

一种新型的基因分析技术可以让孩子更聪明、更漂亮。

What could possible go wrong?

潜在的问题是什么？

DEBATE ABOUT using science to create “bespoke” human beings of one sort or another usually revolves around the ideas of genetic engineering and cloning. People worry about these for two reasons. One is practical. The tinkering involved could end up harming the resulting individual. The other is a more visceral dislike of interfering with the process of reproduction, perhaps best encapsulated in the phrase “playing God”.

• tinker: 小修补

• visceral: 发自内心的、出于本能的

• encapsulate: 封装、概述

基因工程和克隆技术，通常伴随着关于利用科学来创造各种各样的“定制”人类的争论。人们担心这些有两个原因，一个是实际的，（基因）修补最终可能会伤害到最终的个体；另一个原因是对干扰生殖过程的本能厌恶，或许用“扮演上帝”一词来概括最恰当。

There is, however, a third way that the genetic dice which are thrown at the beginning of human life might be loaded—and it does not involve any risky tinkering. It is a twist on the well-established procedure of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The twist would be to decide, on the basis of their DNA, which of a group of available embryos should be implanted and brought to term.

然而，还有第三个原因，即在人的生命之初抛出的基因骰子可能被加载——而且它不涉及任何有风险的修补。这是对成熟的体外受精程序的扭曲，这种扭曲将决定，在他们DNA的基础上，在一组可用的胚胎中，哪些应该被植入、被制造。

The result would be a child optimised with the best-available genetic profile for a long and healthy life. And this is not science fiction. Two American firms have been working on the idea for some time, and one of them is now implementing it.

• genetic profile: 基因档案、基因特征

其结果将是一个优化的孩子，拥有长寿和健康的最佳基因特征。这不是科幻小说，两家美国公司已经研究这个想法有一段时间了，其中一家正在实施。

For those willing to undergo IVF, and with the money to pay for it, it may also be possible to SNP-profile an embryo and thus foretell its future. As well as disease risk, height and intelligence, SNP-profiling might eventually be capable of predicting (albeit imperfectly, for environment also plays a role) things as diverse as television-viewing habits, likelihood of being bullied at school and probability of getting divorced.

对于那些愿意接受试管受精并且有能力支付的人来说，也有可能对胚胎进行SNP分析(单核苷酸多态性分析，一种可以让后代更加健康的技术)，从而预测其未来。除了疾病风险、身高和智力之外，SNP分析可能最终能够预测(尽管不能完全预测，因为环境也起着作用)各种各样的事情，比如看电视的习惯、在学校被欺负的可能性和离婚的可能性。

What all this amounts to is, in essence, a supercharged version of an existing process known as assortative mating. It is already true that intelligent, successful (and therefore probably rich) people seek each other out as partners. In doing so, they bring to the table whatever genetic variations helped make them intelligent, successful and rich, which they then pass on to their children. SNP profiling—available, at least to start with, only to those who can afford it—will enhance that by letting parents pick tall, good-looking and above all clever offspring.

• supercharged version: 加强版、升级版

• assortative mating: 选择性交配，指倾向于与自己外貌、行为和性格相近的人配对的行为。

• bring to the table: 推到台面，提供（好处、利益）

从本质上说，所有这些都是一种被称为“选型交配”的现有过程的加强版。聪明的、成功的人(因此也很可能是富有的)会寻找同样聪明、成功的人为伴侣，这是已存在的事实。通过这样做，他们把任何有助于他们变得聪明、成功和富有的基因变异拿到台面上，然后把这些基因遗传给他们的孩子。至少一开始，只有那些付得起钱的人才可以使用SNP基因分析技术，这让那些父母可以挑选长得高、长得好看、最重要的是聪明的孩子，来增强这种（选型交配的）效果。