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Articles

Transgenics and Morality

Ian Betteridge on the implications of transgenic experiments for moral theory.

Over the past ten years, it has become possible to take genetic material from one species and transplant it into an egg or embryo of another species. This procedure, known as transgenics, can give the recipient some of the characteristics of the donor. Transgenic experimentation could potentially provide great and lasting benefits for both mankind, other species, and the environment. Using gene therapy of this sort, it is possible to ‘design’ forms of wheat that are resistant to disease, thus reducing the amount of pesticides required to farm the food we need. It is also possible to breed sheep that have a kind of immunity to blowfly, by transplanting genes from bacteria that attack the chitinous skeletons of insects into the sheep’s genetic material, so as to produce a ‘fly-killer’ in the animals’ sweat.

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