Staying good while playing God

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Staying good while playing God

• Mickey Gjerris Peter Sandøe
• Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment
• Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University
• www.bioethics.kvl.dk

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Contents

• Prologue The role of ethics in the biotechnology
  debate
• European attitudes to biotechnology
• The debate on GE and cloning in Europe
• Cloning in Public
• What are the ethical concerns?
• Epilogue

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The role of ethics in the biotechnology debate

• To analyse and systematize the content of the
  ethical concerns raised in connection with
  biotechnology
• To discuss the relationship between these ethical
  concerns and the wider societal and philosophical
  context that shapes them
• To critically evaluate the different aspects of
  biotechnology and the general impact on society
• To remind us that ethical reflection and
  decision-making is an existential task not
  merely a professional
• To remind theologians, philosophers,
  bioethicists, politicians etc. that ethics is a
  lantern, not a hammer

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European attitudes to biotechnology used on
animals

• Since 1991 the Eurobarometer survey has examined
  the attitude of the European public
• In general the surveys show that the European
  public
• Make balanced judgements on the use of
  biotechnology on animals
• Differentiates between medical and agricultural
  applications
• Do not become more positive towards biotechnology
  the more they know about it
• Have become slightly more positive towards
  biotechnology in general from 1991-2002
• Are most sceptical towards biotechnology when it
  is applied to animals and/or food-production

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SHOULD BIOTECHNOLOGY BE ENCOURAGED?
Table 1 Mean scores in the judgement of to what
extent different applications of gene technology
should be encouraged in EU in 1996. Based on
Durant, J. et al (eds), 1998, p.234, 260
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PERCEPTION BY EUROPEAN PUBLIC
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Eurobarometer 58.0, 2002
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What are the ethical concerns?

• Drawing from the Eurobarometer surveys, a
  qualitative interview study from Denmark (2000)
  and our experience, the ethical concerns that
  will emerge in the discussion om animal
  biotechnology can be placed under these headers
• Dangers to human health and environment
• Welfare
• Other moral concerns
• Usefullness

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The debate on GE and cloning of animals in Europe

• The focus quickly shifts to the consequences if
  and when the technology is used on humans as in
  the case of animal cloning (the slippery slope)
• Does not treat GE or cloned animals especially
  but includes them in the general discussion about
  the ethical limits to human use of animals
• Is growing as the the list of possible
  applications grows and thereby the need for
  guidelines and regulation
• Is characterized by a growing political
  understanding for the need of socially robust
  solutions in light of the case of GM-crops

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CLONING IN PUBLIC

• Objectives
• To stimulate informed, public debate across
  Europe on farm animal cloning and to ensure
  public participation in the forming of policies
  and regulation on a European level
• To make recommendations on European regulation
  and on guidelines covering research on farm
  animal cloning and its subsequent applications
• Deliverables
• A report on the state-of-the-art and objectives
  of farm animal cloning science
• Reports on the legal and ethical aspects of farm
  animal cloning
• A series of articles for leading European
  newspapers and magazines and other publications
  to stimulate public debate on farm animal cloning
• A participatory conference and two workshops on
  different aspects of farm animal cloning with a
  high degree of public involvement
• A set of recommendations on future guidelines and
  regulation

Participants The Danish Institute for
Agricultural Sciences (DIAS DK), Institute of
Animal Physiology and Genetics (IAPG CZ),
Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (IBMC
PT), Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University
(KVL DK), University of Copenhagen (KU DK),
and University of Wales, Cardiff (UWC GB)
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CLONING IN PUBLIC

• Thematic scope
• The project will concentrate on cloning by means
  of nuclear cell transfer on farm animal species.
  Both the development of the technology itself and
  the possible applications of it will be
  considered.
• Agricultural sector Farm animal breeding
• Biomedical sector Basic research, genetically
  identical animals, genetically modified animals,
  bioreactors,
• Geographical scope
• The different aspects of farm animal cloning will
  be examined within both member states and
  associated countries. A wider international
  perspective will also be included for example,
  regarding trade, international law and the
  ability of the EU to be competitive in economic
  and technological terms.

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What are the ethical concerns?

• Drawing from the Eurobarometer surveys, a
  qualitative interview study from Denmark (2000)
  and our experience, the ethical concerns that
  will emerge in the discussion om animal
  biotechnology can be placed under these headers
• Dangers to human health and environment
• Animal welfare
• Other moral concerns
• Usefullness
• We will concentrate on the last two

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Other moral concerns

• Under this heading we find complex questions on
  social justice, democracy, globalization and law.
  But we also find the question of the integrity of
  the animals
• Integrity can be seen as a notion that tries to
  capture the feeling of uneasiness that will not
  leave, although a technology has been proven to
  be without risks and without welfare problems
• The concept of integrity shows itself in our
  immediate experience of living beings as in the
  case of the blind hens
• Familiarity and estrangement

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BLIND HENS
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The concept of integrity

• Five different approaches
• Widening the notion of animal welfare
• Blind and featherless poultry
• Moving from individualism to holism
• Farm animal breeding
• The untouchableness of life
• Unneccessary use of technology
• Bringing in considerations about usefullness
• Copycat
• Animals as ressources and aliens
• Animals as means and ends at the same time

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Recommendations for the Danish Parliament

• Specific legislation on cloning and genetic
  modification of animals
• Should only be allowed when serving a substantial
  goal
• Basic research
• Applied research for the improvement of health
  and environment
• Production and breeding of animals that produces
  compounds of substantial benefit for health and
  environment
• Teaching at universities and training of personel
  
• Rule of thumb The Principle of Proportionality

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Epilogue How to proceed?

• GM-crops have taught us that to introduce
  biotechnology in a large scale socially robust
  limits must be placed on the use of the
  technology.
• A principle of proportionality will perhaps not
  give scientists the freedom they want, but it
  will ensure that the applications of animal
  biotechnology that stands up to public scrutiny
  (e.g. biomedical uses), are not discarded
  alongside the unacceptable ones (e.g. food
  production).
• GM crops became rejected partly because the
  ethical concerns of the general public were
  deemed irrelevant or less important in the
  discussion