Elsevier

Theriogenology

Volume 65, Issue 5, 15 March 2006, Pages 992-1004
Theriogenology

After Dolly—Ethical limits to the use of biotechnology on farm animals

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.theriogenology.2005.09.012Get rights and content

Abstract

The cloning of Dolly the sheep gave rise to a widespread call for limits on interference with life. Until recently, the main limits were technical: what it is possible to do. Now scientists are faced with ethical limits as well: what it is acceptable to do.

In this context, we take ethics to involve systematic and rational reflection on moral issues raised in the public sphere. The concerns of the general public are not necessarily valid, but they are the best point of departure if the discussion is to lead to a socially robust framework for setting limits to the use of animal biotechnology.

To assess public understanding, we examine two sources of data: Eurobarometer surveys from 1991 to 2002 and a qualitative interview study carried out in Denmark in 2000. Based on these sources, we formulate, and then discuss closely, the following concerns: dangers to human health and the environment, animal welfare, animal integrity, and usefulness.

In the final part of the article, it is proposed that a principle of proportionality should be the foundation for socially robust applications of animal biotechnology. Only in cases where the usefulness of the technology can be said to outweigh countervailing moral concerns, as in biomedical research, will applications of animal biotechnology stand up to scrutiny in the public sphere.

Section snippets

Dolly and the public awareness of animal biotechnology

Dolly was an unusual sheep. She was in a radical sense fatherless. She originated from a cell taken from the udder of her biological mother. This cell was inserted into a sheep ovum from which the nuclear genome had been removed, and it was manipulated so that it fused with the ‘egg-mass’ or cytoplasm of the ovum to form a embryo. The embryo was then inserted into a foster mother who went through a normal, albeit closely monitored, pregnancy, which resulted in the birth of Dolly—the first

Biotechnology, animals, ethics and the public

For the general public animal biotechnology does not exist in a vacuum. It coexists with other applications of biotechnology, primarily within agriculture and the medical area. It therefore makes good sense to discuss, first of all, how animal applications relate to these other uses of biotechnology.

In order to monitor lay perceptions of the new biotechnologies within the EU, the European Commission has carried out regular surveys since 1989—the most recent being undertaken in 2002. Each of

Scepticism does not merely reflect lack of knowledge

It might be supposed that the pronounced public scepticism about forms of biotechnology such as cloning and other animal biotechnologies reflects a low level of understanding of biotechnology among lay observers. According to this so-called ‘knowledge deficit’ or ‘knowledge gap’ model, inadequate knowledge leads the public to draw moral conclusions about practices within science that are ill informed. And since the problem is knowledge, the cure is to feed information into the public sphere

Animals, biotechnology and the public: moving beyond the general picture

Apart from the indications given by the follow-up questions about cloning, the Eurobarometer does not offer any detailed explanation of the motives and reasoning lying behind critical attitudes to the mix of animals and biotechnology. Thus, to add more detail to the picture painted by the Eurobarometer, a series of seven focus group interviews were carried out in Denmark in 2000. Each focus group involved between four and seven participants. Since the aim of the interviews was to explore the

Ethical limits to the use of biotechnology on animals?

In this article, we have tried to show what kinds of concern the use of biotechnology on farm animals evokes in Europeans in connection with farm animals both as species and as production units in the agricultural sector. These concerns can, roughly speaking, be said to give a list of the ethical questions that a society such as Denmark needs to discuss when considering the ethical aspects of biotechnology and establishing a framework for the use of it—at least, if the discussion is to be

Conclusion

The European public is worried about animal cloning and other forms of animal biotechnology. However, contrary to a widespread belief in the scientific community, this worry cannot simply be explained in terms of a lack or distortion of factual information. To create a socially robust framework for discussion of the ethical limits concerning the use of biotechnology on animals, we believe that one should take these worries as the point of departure. It is not that they should be uncritically

Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank Novo Nordisk A/S and the Danish Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries for providing financial support for the research on which this paper is based. Thanks are also due to Paul A. Robinson for editorial assistance.

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