MORAL IMPLICATIONS SURROUNDING GENETIC ENGINEERING

Moral Implications Surrounding Genetic Engineering

Moral Implications Surrounding Genetic Engineering

Introduction

The process of creating a transgene includes isolating the gene of interest from the tens of thousands of other genes in the genome of a gene-donor species. Once that gene is isolated, it is usually altered so it can function effectively in a host organism. That gene is then combined with other genes to prepare it to be introduced into another organism, at which point it's known as a transgene. A transgenic organism, sometimes called a chimera, is one that contains a transgene introduced by technological methods rather than through selective breeding. Transgenics have traits not normally found in the species. (Anderson, 1990, 23)

Background of Genetic Engineering

The birth of a sheep, Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, has brought on an avalanche of books about genetics and the future of humanity. Ethical arguments about genetics ought to be informed by what genetics is. Unfortunately, not all these books meet that test. (Asimov, 1983, 128)

The big ethical threats, are the secularisation of society and the spread of single-parent families-hardly things that can be laid directly at the door of cloning. Researchers worry that human clones would lack souls or would at least be less human for not having a distinct set of genes. Yet identical twins, who share genes, are naturally occurring clones. Presumably experts credit them with distinct souls or identities, unlike certain legendary African tribes who are said to kill one twin of any identical pair at birth. (Baeuerle, 1997, 58)

A moral rigorists feel that cloning people offends basic human values and should not be allowed. They believe that, with proper safeguards, human cloning should be permitted, though with a preference for social "desirables"-deserving heterosexuals, say, in monogamous marriages. Both authors ask good questions. For example, would cloning impose unfair expectations on a child? Yet this is a not a book to recommend. Readers who share its fundamentalist moral outlook may find it useful. Others are likelier to be enraged. (Balkwill, 1993, 84)

Genetic engineering and biotechnology have been hailed as a panacea for many of the world's problems. However, scientists and medical practitioners using the techniques of genetic engineering are not neutral observers, and often have commercial interests which affect their judgments regarding the type of research which should be done. The pressures of scientific research are great, and there is a tremendous obligation to publish results, which can outweigh ethical considerations for the researcher. (Berg, 1992, 96)

Although genetic engineering is a new technique, mankind has influenced the genetic constitution of other organisms for many centuries. Historically, the most significant impacts have been in agriculture, for example, through the selective breeding of livestock. The development of hybrid corn in the 1930s, and later of the Mexican dwarf wheat and IR-8 variety of rice by conventional genetic selection, have profoundly influenced society's ability to feed people. Genetic engineering opens up the possibility of extending these advances beyond what can be achieved by traditional ...