Ethics
Ethics--from ancient Greek ethos,
meaning “character” or “custom”
Bioethics
• Ethics- knowing right from wrong, and
then doing the right thing
• Bio- living organisms
• Bioethics- knowing right from wrong
with issues concerning living
organisms, and then doing the right
thing
Premise: Genetic engineering is unnatural.
Conclusion: Therefore, genetic engineering
is intrinsically wrong.
Genetic engineering requires that
we take a reductionist view of life
that sees only genes, not
individuals, as important.
–“From the reductionist perspective, life is merely the
aggregate representation of the chemicals that give
rise to it and therefore they see no ethical problem
whatsoever in transferring…even a hundred genes
from one species into the heredity blueprint of
another species.”
•Jeremy Rifkin
Controversy over GMO Foods
• Debate puts consumer and ecology groups
against Multinational Corporations
• Many farmers, scientists, government agencies
caught in the middle
Source:Clark Ford
Arguments for Genetically
Engineered Food
• Potential to:
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Increase productivity
Increase purity
Increase safety
Improve nutrition
Improve food quality
Improve sustainability
Benefit ecosystem
• Process not inherently
harmful
• Similar to traditional Plant
and Animal breeding
• Unless misused, outcome
expected to be beneficial
– Is a powerful technology
that could help humanity
• Bad ideas weeded out by
the market, regulation,
lawsuit
--Paul Thompson
Arguments against Genetically
Engineered Foods
• Potential safety risk for humans
– Unintended Consequences
• Genetic Engineering is playing God
– Not Natural to move genes between species
• Potential safety risk for environment
– Could spread
• Genetically Engineered label not required in some
countries
• Benefits multinational corporations
– not consumers or developing nations
Will it Feed the World?
• Disease resistance will benefit
developing nations
• Technology requiring increased
inputs benefits wealthy,
multinationals, plantations
• Small, subsistence farmers can’t
compete, lose land
• Inequity, poverty increase
• Thus more food and more hunger
• Green Revolution unsustainable
“The public accepts biotechnology in medicine
because it sees a clear benefit: saving lives. But
about all crop biotechnology can do for now is
make plants that are easier and cheaper for farmers
to grow. While that’s great for farmers it’s hardly an
appeal to middle class consumers, particularly when
they are being cautioned by opponents that the
foods’ safety hasn’t been approved.”
- Robert Shapiro, president of Monsanto
Ethics of Gene Therapy:
[ethics are the system of principles that help you decide
what is right or wrong]
Who gets gene therapy?
What types of gene therapy should be allowed?
Is this the next step towards human cloning?
What are the risks allowed?
What are the evolutionary consequences of gene therapy?
Should we interfere with nature?
Who are we to play God?
Source: William Bates 2001
Your
Assignment
• Include yourself in the debate about the
ethics of biotechnology.
• You have now heard all the facts, so pick a
side.
• Create a 1 page argument (for or against)
biotechnology and decide whether or not it is
ethical.
• You must use examples (facts with
reputable references) to support your
arguments…go further than Wikipedia.