粮食基因编辑潜在风险的法律防范

Legal Prevention of Potential Risks in Crop Genome Editing

关于粮食基因编辑的种种争论,其焦点并不在于基因编辑技术本身,而在于基因编辑食品的商业化对人类生存所构成的潜在威胁。目前流行的应对此种风险的妥协性立法所建构起的防范机制仅以标识为要求,以消费者知情为大吉,而任凭基因编辑食品的商业化肆意发展。现有机制所要求的标识因缺乏结论性的科学依据,与基因编辑食品的安全性无必然联系。非自然的人为基因编辑食品对人的健康乃至生命的威胁具有后果不可逆的潜在风险,理应严加防范。相关立法必须建立在人类的生存价值与基因编辑食品的商业化价值的比较之上。任何哪怕具有丝毫可能危及人类生存的潜在风险的产品,其商业化均是不能容忍的。据此,应坚持人类与自然和谐共存的可持续发展理念,在充分尊重粮食基因编辑技术的科学研究的同时,创设切实有效的法律防范制度,以确保人类生存的安全。

The focus of the dispute over crop genome editing lies not in the crop genome editing technology itself,but in the potential threat posed by the commercialization of genome-edited foods to the security of human survival.However,the prevailing legal prevention mechanism constructed by the various legislations is content with only the required label being fixed to commercialized genome-edited foods and the fact being known to consumers.As a result,the commercialization of genome-edited foods is left to develop wantonly.Furthermore,due to the lack of conclusive scientific evidence,the required label has nothing to do with the issue of whether genome-edited foods are safe.The commercialization of unnatural genome-edited foods poses a potential risk to human health,even life,the consequences of which could be irreversible,and therefore ought to be strictly guarded against.As to the way of legally dealing with such potential risk,the author believes that any relevant legislation should be based on value judgment.From the perspective of value jurisprudence,the commercialization of a product should not be tolerated if it poses even the slightest risk to human survival.Therefore,China should formulate an effective legal prevention system to ensure to a maximum extent the safety of human survival by adhering to the idea of sustainable development and harmonious coexistence between mankind and the nature,while respecting the scientific research on the technology of crop genome editing.