Animal welfare and the brave new world of modifying animals. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Genetically Modified Laboratory Animals—What Welfare Problems Do They Face
In this article, we respond to public concern expressed about the welfare of genetically modified (GM) nonhuman animals. As a contribution to the debate on this subject, we attempt in this article to determine in what situations the practice of genetic modification in rodents may generate significant welfare problems. After a brief discussion of the principles of animal welfare, we focus on the problem of animal suffering and review some types of gene modifications likely to cause predictable welfare problems. In this article, we also consider suffering that may be involved in the process of generating GM animals. Finally, we discuss the role of GM animals in attempts to reduce, replace, and refine the use of animals in research.
Staying good while playing God - Looking after animal welfare when applying biotechnology
2000
Animal breeding was, until the beginning of the twentieth century, a relatively uncontrolled activity based mainly on the animal's physical appearance. The early animal breeders did not really have the knowledge and tools to predict and control what they were doing. This changed in the first half of the twentieth century, when Mendelian genetics was applied in farm animal breeding.
The interdisciplinary EC consortium (the PEGASUS project) aimed to examine the issues raised by the development, implementation and commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) animals, and derivative foods and pharmaceutical products. The results integrated existing social (including existing public perception) environmental and economic knowledge regarding GM animals to formulate policy recommendations relevant to new developments and applications. The use of GM in farmed animals (aquatic, terrestrial and pharmaceutical) was mapped and reviewed. A foresight exercise was conducted to identity future developments. Three case studies (aquatic, terrestrial and pharmaceutical) were applied to identify the issues raised, including the potential risks and benefits of GM animals from the perspectives of the production chain (economics and agri-food sector) and the life sciences (human and animal health, environmental impact, animal welfare and sustainable production). Ethical and policy concerns were examined through application of combined ethical matrix method and policy workshops. The case studies were also used to demonstrate the utility of public engagement in the policy process. The results suggest that public perceptions, ethical issues, the competitiveness of EU animal production and risk-benefit assessments that consider human and animal health, environmental impact and sustainable production need to be considered in EU policy development. Few issues were raised with application in the pharmaceutical sector, assuming ethical and economic issues were addressed in policy, but the introduction of agricultural GM animal applications should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Ethical Issues in the Application of Biotechnology to Animals in Agriculture
Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics, Beauchamp, T. and Frey, R. Oxford University Press 2011, pp. 826-854, 2011
This article discusses moral problems about the use of modern biotechnology in agriculture that emerged in the early 1990s over recombinant bovine growth hormone, a chemical produced using genetically engineered microorganisms and then injected into dairy cows to increase milk yield. Then, there came genetically engineered soybeans, corn, canola, and cotton, and recently genetically engineered animals and cloned animals intended as food or breeding stock in agriculture. The discussion provides a moral framework for evaluating these new applications of modern biotechnology as they affect the food supply. It notes that all of the livestock are sentient beings with determinable welfare levels, which assures them of some degree of moral status. It points out that the moral importance of animals takes on a massive significance in light of the number of animals in the livestock sector. The livestock sector also is one of the most significant contributors to global environmental problems.
7 a Research ethics for animal biotechnology
2004
Animal biotechnology can be broadly categorized as encompassing the asexual reproduction of animals through cloning, and genetic transformation of animals through the manipulations made possible through recombinant DNA. The character and methods of such manipulations include the creation of ‘knockout’ animals intended to study gene function on the one hand, and also the insertion of genes originally identified in other species, or, colloquially, genetic engineering, on the other. This definition will clearly change and grow with theoretical and technological developments in genomics and systematic biology, but for the time being cloning and genetic transformation represent the main foci of animal biotechnology for the purpose of research ethics. Bernard Rollin’s 1986 paper “The Frankenstein Thing” articulated two ethical principles for animal biotechnology. One was the principle of conservation of welfare, to wit, that applications of biotechnology should result in animals that are ...
Current ethical issues in animal biotechnology
The present paper reviews the current status of opinion and debate regarding ethical issues in three broad categories of relevance to animal biotechnology. The first is scientific integrity, where the focus has been on scientific fraud and the integrity of the research process. The second concerns possible harms or risks to parties affected either directly by research (including animals themselves) or through the eventual commercialisation or development of products from animal biotechnology. The final category concerns a responsibility to serve as a guardian of the public interest with respect to application and development of technologies derived from new genetic sciences. It is plausible to see the scientific community as a whole having such a fiduciary obligation to the broader public in virtue of the technical complexity of the issues and owing to the public funding and institutional support for scientific research. The overall conclusion is that in the latter two categories especially, there is an urgent need for new participation in deliberative consideration of ethical issues by working scientists.
Assessing ethics and animal welfare in animal biotechnology for farm production
2005
Summary This paper addresses the ethical issues involved in animal biotechnology. Considerable advances in this field have been made with transgenic fish, which may be the first real test case for regulatory bodies. Intrinsic concerns about animal biotechnology are often voiced in public debate, and the paper presents and critically discusses these issues. Even though these concerns may be hard to reconcile with standards of rational argument, they might still have practical consequences for ethical policy making.