Concern has been raised about the ethics and risks of performing genetic interventions in macaque monkeys to study models of human neuropsychiatric conditions. Here I point out that, when the outcome of some situations is truly uncertain, human decision makers tend to evaluate these situations inconsistently. The consequences of this inconsistency are sometimes profound, as they lead policy makers and reviewers to ignore or discount the ethical costs of doing nothing. I conclude that there are fundamental problems with the ‘precautionary principle’ that Western policy makers often adopt to justify their decisions.

中文翻译：

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无所作为的道德成本

对猕猴进行基因干预以研究人类神经精神疾病模型的伦理和风险引起了关注。我在此指出，当某些情况的结果确实不确定时，人类决策者往往会不一致地评估这些情况。这种不一致的后果有时是深远的，因为它们导致决策者和审查者忽视或忽视无所作为的道德成本。我的结论是，西方政策制定者经常采用的“预防原则”存在根本性问题，以证明他们的决定是正确的。