TED演讲:出身决定命运?(5)

 　　And the question to me becomes:  对我来说，问题就变成了：

　　What do we do,  我们要做什么

　　as our science gets to be so good  当我们的科学在解剖学上

　　in looking at anatomy¹,  如此先进的时候

　　that we reach the point where we have to admit  我们已经到了不得不承认

　　that a democracy that's been based on anatomy  基于解剖学上的人的民主

　　might start falling apart?  也许正在崩溃的时候

　　I don't want to give up the science,  我不想对科学失去希望

　　but at the same time it kind of feels sometimes  但是同时，有的时候隐约觉得

　　like the science is coming out from under us.  科学的发展是受到我们影响的

　　So where do we go?  因此我们将走向何方？

　　It seems like what happens in our culture  看起来我们的社会

　　is a sort of pragmatic attitude:  有着一种实用主义的态度：

　　"Well, we have to draw the line somewhere,  “好，我必须在某处画一条界限，

　　so we will draw the line somewhere."  那么我就在那画一条界限”

　　But a lot of people get stuck in a very strange position.  但是很多人会因此陷在一个非常尴尬的位置

　　So for example,  举个例子

　　Texas has at one point decided  德克萨斯州有一个决定

　　that what it means to marry a man  嫁给一个男人

　　is to mean that you don't have a Y chromosome²,  意味着你没有Y染色体

　　and what it means to marry a woman means you do have a Y chromosome.  同时如果你娶一个女人意味着你有Y染色体

　　Now in practice they don't actually test people for their chromosomes³.  现实中，他们实际上不会去检测染色体

　　But this is also very bizarre,  但是这也非常奇怪

　　because of the story I told you at the beginning  因为我一开始告诉了大家那个关于

　　about androgen insensitivity syndrome⁴.  雄激素不敏感综合征的故事

　　If we look at one of the founding fathers of modern democracy,  如有我们看一下现代民主制度的奠基人之一

　　Dr. Martin Luther King,  马丁·路德·金，博士

　　he offers us something of a solution in his "I have a dream" speech.  在他的“我有一个梦想”的演讲中，为我们提供了一个解决方法

　　He says we should judge people "based not on the color of their skin,  他认为我们“不应该根据一个人的肤色

　　but on the content of their character,"  而是应该根据他的品格”去评判一个人

　　moving beyond anatomy.  摒弃人种差异

　　And I want to say, "Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea."  我想说“是的，那听起来确实是个好方法”

　　But in practice, how do you do it?  但实际操作中，你怎么去做？

　　How do you judge people based on the content of character?  你如何根据他的品德去评判他？

　　I also want to point out  我还想指出

　　that I'm not sure that is how we should distribute rights in terms of humans,  我不太确定我们应该如何分配人类的权利

　　because, I have to admit, that there are some golden retrievers I know  因为，我不得不承认，有些黄金猎犬

　　that are probably more deserving of social services  比起我知道的一些人似乎更应该

　　than some humans I know.  得到社会的帮助

　　I also want to say there are probably also some yellow Labradors that I know  我还想说，我知道有些拉布拉多似乎

　　that are more capable of informed, intelligent, mature decisions  比有些40岁左右的人在性关系问题上

　　about sexual relations than some 40-year-olds that I know.  更慎重，更聪明，更能作出成熟的决定

　　So how do we operationalize  因此我们如何去衡量

　　the question of content of character?  品德的问题？

　　It turns out to be really difficult.  结果证明是非常困难的

　　And part of me also wonders,  我还想知道

　　what if content of character  如果品德的好坏

　　turns out to be something that's scannable in the future --  在未来可以被扫描出来——

　　able to be seen with an fMRI?  也许可以用核磁共振成像看见？

　　Do we really want to go there?  我们真的愿意走到那一步吗？

　　I'm not sure where we go.  我不确定我们将走向何方

　　What I do know is that it seems to be really important  我知道的是应该思考一下

　　to think about the idea of the United States being in the lead  美国所引领的民主存在的问题

　　of thinking about this issue of democracy.  看起来是非常重要的

　　We've done a really good job struggling with democracy,  我们在争取民主的问题上已经做得非常好了

　　and I think we would do a good job in the future.  我认为今后同样会做的更好

　　We don't have a situation that Iran has, for example,  我们情况和伊朗不同，比如

　　where a man who's sexually attracted to other men  一个男人在性方面对其他男人有吸引力

　　is liable to be murdered,  那么他是可以被杀的

　　unless he's willing to submit to a sex change,  除非他愿意改变自己的性取向

　　in which case he's allowed to live.  那么他将可以活下来

　　We don't have that kind of situation.  我们没有那样的情况

　　I'm glad to say we don't have the kind of situation with --  我非常高兴的说我们没有那样的情况--

　　a surgeon I talked to a few years ago  对一位外科医生说，那是在数年之前

　　who had brought over a set of conjoined twins  他带来一个连体婴儿

　　in order to separate them, partly to make a name for himself.  希望可以帮助他们分离，某种程度上也想让自己出名

　　But when I was on the phone with him,  但是当我跟他通电话时

　　asking why he was going to do this surgery --  问他为什么希望做这个手术——

　　this was a very high-risk surgery --  因为这是个危险性很高的手术——

　　his answer was that, in this other nation,  他答道，在这个国家

　　these children were going to be treated very badly, and so he had to do this.  这样的孩子将会被残忍的对待，因此他必须要帮助他们这么做

　　My response to him was, "Well, have you considered political asylum  我对他的回答是，“恩，你为他们考虑过政治避难

　　instead of a separation surgery?"  而不是进行手术吗？”

　　The United States has offered tremendous possibility  美国为像这样的孩子保持他们自己的特征

　　for allowing people to be the way they are,  提供了很大的可能

　　without having them have to be changed for the sake of the state.  他们从不用为了国家改变自己的身体

　　So I think we have to be in the lead.  因此我认为我们应该要引领这种思想

1 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

2 chromosome   

n.染色体

参考例句：

• Chromosome material with exhibits of such behaviour is called heterochromatin.表现这种现象的染色体物质叫做异染色质。
• A segment of the chromosome may become lost,resulting in a deletion.染色体的一个片段可能会丢失，结果产生染色体的缺失。

3 chromosomes   

n.染色体( chromosome的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chromosomes also determine the sex of animals. 染色体也决定动物的性别。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Each of four chromosomes divide longitudinally. 四种染色体的每一种都沿着纵向分裂。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。