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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什么也不做的道德成本


人们对在猕猴身上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提出了担忧。在这里我指出，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，因为它们导致政策制定者和审查者忽视或低估无所作为的道德成本。我的结论是，西方决策者经常采用的“预防原则”来证明其决策的合理性，存在根本性问题。