Journal of Jishou University(Social Sciences Edition) ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (4): 113-121.DOI: 10.13438/j.cnki.jdxb.2023.04.011

• Philosophy • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Humanistic Reflections on Human Genome Editing and the Fission of "Human Nature"

TAO Yingshi   

  1. (1.School of Marxism,Hunan University,Changsha 410082,China;2.Innovation Research Center for Governance of Philosophy and Ethics of Science and Technology of Hunan Provincial Key Research Base of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Ordinary Universities,Changsha 410076,China)
  • Online:2023-07-01 Published:2023-08-17

Abstract: Instead of an ordinary thing,the human genome has a fundamental difference with other biological genomes,which is the basis to determine human beings.The human genome generates and determines human nature,and its structural variation will lead to changes in human phenotype and functional state,and human nature will also be changed.Human genome editing takes human's "natural body" as the object of transformation,which opens the important turn of human life from "natural evolution" to "artificial evolution".This shift reshapes the biological matrix,social base and cornerstone of human civilization and at the same time profoundly fissions the biological,social nature of human beings and the nature of human civilization,and even makes the nature of human beings no longer exist.The fission of "human nature" may bring a series of challenges:it will lead to irreversible "genetic potential difference",from which the inequality of human social strata will become more solidified and extreme;and by destroying the human autonomy and its forming conditions,human beings will never be able to become independent authors of their own lives.As much as it has the ability to produce the utility of good,it has the ability to produce evil consequences,forming an insurmountable "contradiction between good and evil",blurring the boundary between "human" and "non-human" and making it necessary for human beings to give a new answer to the division basis of "self" and "other".If the fission of human nature breaks through a certain "threshold" or "critical point" and rises to the difference at the species level,human beings will be replaced by the "other" edited by himself,and inevitably move towards "termination" and "extinction".

Key words: human genome editing, "human nature", fission, humanistic reflection

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