In a third scenario, people will screen embryos before implantation so as to optimize the kind of children they have. If someone doesn't live up to social expectations, he tends to blame bad genetic choices by his parents rather than himself. Human genes have been transferred to animals and even to plants to produce new medical products; and animal genes have been added to certain embryos to increase their physical endurance or resistance to disease. These will have serious and unexpected consequences.
We don't have to await the arrival of human genetic engineering to foresee a time when we will be able to enhance intelligence, memory, emotional sensitivity, and sexuality, as well as reduce aggressiveness and manipulate behavior in a host of other ways.
第三種情形涉及人們在胚胎移植前對(duì)胚胎的擇優(yōu)篩選。如果某個(gè)人有違社會(huì)的期望，他不會(huì)歸咎于自己，只會(huì)責(zé)怪父母未能選好良種。
人類基因已被植人動(dòng)物甚至植物身上以生產(chǎn)新的藥物，動(dòng)物基因也被植人某些人類胚胎以增強(qiáng)體力或抗病能力，這種轉(zhuǎn)基因的做法都將產(chǎn)生難以預(yù)料的結(jié)果。
我們無須等待人類基因工程的降臨便可作出預(yù)測，未來的某個(gè)時(shí)候我們將通過各種方法來提高自身的智力、記憶力、情緒敏感性和性功能，同時(shí)也可以降低自己的進(jìn)取性，控制自己的行為。
The medical profession is dedicated to the proposition that anything that can defeat disease and prolong life is unequivocally a good thing. The fear of death is one of the deepest and most abiding human passions, so it is understandable that we should celebrate any advance in medical technology that appears to put death off. But people worry about the quality of their lives as well - not just the quantity. Ideally, one would like not merely to live longer but also to have one's different faculties fail as close as possible to when death finally comes, so that one does not have to pass through a period of debility at the end of life.
醫(yī)學(xué)界決意堅(jiān)持這樣一種主張，即任何一種能夠攻克疾病、延年益壽的東西無疑都是好東西。對(duì)死亡的恐懼是人類最深刻、最持久的情感之一，所以我們歡快地慶祝任何一種看來能推遲死亡的醫(yī)學(xué)成果都是可以理解的。但是，人們所關(guān)心的不僅是生命的長短，而且還擔(dān)心生活的質(zhì)量。理想的狀況是，人們不僅希望活得更長久，而且也希望自己的各種身心功能盡可能地持續(xù)到生命的最后一刻，以免在自己人生的末年度過一段衰弱的時(shí)光。
While many medical advances have increased the quality of life for older people, many have had the opposite effect by prolonging only one aspect of life and increasing dependency. Alzheimer's disease - in which certain parts of the brain waste away, leading to loss of memory and eventually dementia - is a good example of this, because the likelihood of getting it rises proportionately with age. At age 65, only one person in a hundred is likely to come down with Alzheimer's; at 85, it is one in six. The rapid growth in the population suffering from Alzheimer's in developed countries is thus a direct result of increased life expectancies, which have prolonged the health of the body without prolonging resistance to this terrible neurological disease.
雖然醫(yī)學(xué)所取得的很多成果提高了老年人的生活質(zhì)量，但是另外一些成果卻產(chǎn)生了相反的作用，我們在延長生命的同時(shí)，也在強(qiáng)化依賴性。老年癡呆癥就是一個(gè)很好的例子，患者大腦某些部位的功能衰退了，從而導(dǎo)致記憶喪失，最終出現(xiàn)了癡呆癥，而老年癡呆癥的患病幾率隨著年齡的增長而增長。在65歲的人群中，患病的幾率可能只是1%，而在85歲的人群中則上升為6比1，即6人中有1人可能患老年癡呆癥。因此，發(fā)達(dá)國家老年癡呆癥患者急劇增多的直接原因就是延年益壽，人體健康的時(shí)間延長了，但是抵抗老年癡呆癥這類神經(jīng)疾病的能力卻沒有同步加強(qiáng)。
We could find ways to preserve bodily health but would fail to put off age-related mental deterioration. Stem cell research might yield ways to grow new body parts. But without a parallel curer for Alzheimer's, this wonderful new technology would do no more than allow more people to persist in vegetative states for years longer than is currently possible.
The consequences of medical advances might be the world in which people routinely live to be 120, or even up to 150, but the last decades of life in a state of childlike dependence on caretakers.
We're still trying to make sense of what is happening.
Thank you again for the privilege of speaking at this famous university.
我們雖然可以找到保持身體健康的方法，但是我們卻無法推遲與老齡有關(guān)的腦力衰退的時(shí)間。干細(xì)胞研究可能會(huì)為我們找到新器官的培育途徑。如果我們沒有同時(shí)找到醫(yī)治老年癡呆癥的良方，干細(xì)胞研究這種奇妙的新技術(shù)無非只能讓更多的人在植物狀態(tài)下延年茍活而已。
醫(yī)學(xué)進(jìn)步帶來的結(jié)果可能使人們活到120歲，甚至活到150歲，但這樣的人在生命的最后幾十年中只能像孩子那樣依賴護(hù)理人員而茍活。
我們還在努力弄懂眼前所發(fā)生的一切。
再次感謝你們給我如此殊榮，來到這所名牌大學(xué)發(fā)表演講。
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