Issues in Science

Genetic Engineering
Ethical Issues and
Concerns
Glow-in-the-dark Mice
Strawberry
with Antifreeze
Glow-in-the-dark Cats
What Is Genetic
Engineering?
• “Genetic Engineering” =
Creating organisms with novel
genetic sequences.
– Reiss and Straughan 1996
Pest Resistance: Bt Corn
Herbicide Tolerance

“Roundup Ready”
Enhanced Nutrition

Golden rice
Commercial Value

• Fast-growing
salmon
Ethical Arguments
About Biotechnology
• Intrinsic: Biotechnology is good/bad in itself

• Extrinsic: Biotechnology is good/bad because of:

– its consequences
– the motivations behind:
• advocacy of biotech or
• opposition to biotech
Intrinsic Arguments
Against Biotechnology
• Premise: Genetic engineering is
unnatural.
• Conclusion: Therefore, genetic
engineering is intrinsically
wrong.
– Is this a good argument?
Intrinsic Arguments
Against Biotechnology
• 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
Extrinsic Arguments
About Biotechnology

• Biotechnology is good/bad because

of its consequences.
• Three ways to evaluate
consequences:
• Do no harm (avoid bad consequences).
• Maximize good consequences and minimize
bad ones for all affected.
• Justice: Fair distribution of good and bad
consequences among all affected.
Extrinsic Arguments
About Biotechnology
• Biotechnology is good/bad
because of the motivations of its
proponents/opponents.
Extrinsic Arguments:
Motivations
• Friends of the Earth: “Golden rice may
never help poor farmers, but it could give
the beleaguered European biotech industry
a new grasp on life.”

• Florence Wambugu: “These critics [of

biotech], who have never experienced
hunger and death on the scale we sadly
witness in Africa, are content to keep
Africans dependent on food aid from
industrialized nations while mass
starvation occurs.”
Extrinsic Arguments
About Biotechnology
• Environmental consequences
• Human health consequences
• Who benefits?
• Who decides?
 The Precautionary
Principle
“When an activity raises threats of harm to the
environment or human health, precautionary
measures should be taken even if some cause and
effect relationships are not fully established
scientifically.”
• Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary
Principle, Jan. 1998

“Lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a

reason for postponing cost-effective measures to
prevent environmental degradation.”
• Rio Declaration 1992
Organ and
Fetal Transplant
Ethical Issues and
Concerns
Organ and
Fetal Transplant

• Organ transplants have been one of the

greatest advances in medicine. However,
organs from living relatives or cadavers are
in short supply, and many people die
awaiting a donor organ. Increasing the
donor pool by using organs from aborted
fetuses has been proposed to increase the
supply. In addition, there are benefits of
using fetal tissue including its particular
usefulness in children, the fact that it is not
readily rejected, and its potential for
growth.
Organ and
Fetal Transplant

• Guidelines for fetal research were issued in

1975, but a research moratorium was
imposed in 1988 to allow study of ethical
and legal issues. While the federal
government delays in lifting the ban,
several states have written laws governing
experimentation with fetuses. Ethical
arguments against using fetal tissue for
organ transplant include a concern that
this would create a branch of biomedicine
which depends on the continuation of
induced abortions.
Organ and
Fetal Transplant

• This could lead to neglect of

research for other therapies. The
timing and type of abortion should
continue to benefit the mother,
rather than the organ recipient.
Ethicists debate whether or not use
of aborted tissue implies complicity
in the abortion process beyond that
which exists for all members of a
society which permits abortion.
 Organ and
Fetal Transplant

• They also wonder whether knowing that some

good could come of an abortion would
influence a woman's decision to have one.
Proposals to keep the use of fetal tissue ethical
include banning the commercial use of sale of
tissues, forbidding designation of the tissue
recipient (to prevent harvesting fetal tissue for
a relative), separating abortion counseling and
management from harvesting of the tissue, and
obtaining informed consent (perhaps from a
proxy surrogate rather than from the mother)
for the use of fetal tissue.
Organ and
Fetal Transplant

• When the medical and ethical

communities have reached some
consensus on these issues, crafted
safeguards, and precluded conflicts of
interest, then restrictions on
government funding should be lifted.
Whereas it would always be preferable
to use tissue from spontaneous
abortions or ectopic pregnancies, these
sources are medically problematic.
Organ and
Fetal Transplant

• When consensus is reached, it

should include a way in which
medical workers can
legitimately refuse to
participate in the procedure on
personal ethical grounds.
In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF)
and Surrogacy
Ethical Issues and
Concerns
 In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF)
• In vitro fertilization has been a source
of moral, ethical, and religious controversy since its
development. Although members of all religious
groups can be found on both sides of the issues, the
major opposition has come from the Roman Catholic
church, which in 1987 issued a doctrinal statement
opposing IVF on three grounds: the destruction of
human embryos not used for implantation; the
possibility of in vitro fertilization by a donor other
than the husband, thus removing reproduction from
the marital context; and the severing of an essential
connection between the conjugal act and
procreation.
In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF)

• Other ethical questions raised have

involved the unusually high rate
of multiple births (twins, triplets,
etc.) associated with IVF. This issue
is being addressed primarily through
the development of better techniques
aimed at using fewer fertilized
embryos to achieve pregnancy.
In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF)

• For example, in the 1980s and 1990s an

average of four fertilized embryos were
transferred into a woman’s uterus to
increase the chance of implantation
and pregnancy. However, in the early
2000s, following the implementation of
improved methods, just two embryos
were transferred, while the same rate of
success as with four embryos was
maintained.
In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF)

• The technique of single embryo

transfer (SET) is available,
though less than 10 percent of
women opt for SET because it
has a lower rate of success
relative to multiple embryo
transfer—in many cases at least
two cycles of SET are necessary
for success.
In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF)

• Furthermore, many women are unable

to afford additional cycles of IVF using
SET and therefore are more likely to
choose multiple embryo transfer, even
though a multiple birth may be less
desirous than a single birth. Thus, the
incidence of twins has continued to
rise, especially in the United States,
where the rate of twin births has
increased 70 percent since the 1980s.
In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF)

• IVF has also raised a number of

unresolved moral issues
concerning the freezing
(cryopreservation) of ovaries,
eggs, sperm, or embryos for
future pregnancies.
Surrogate Motherhood

• Perhaps legislation is slow in coming

because society has not yet been
able to resolve the myriad of ethical
and legal questions surrounding
surrogate motherhood. Ethical issues
abound. Many argue that surrogate
arrangements depersonalize
reproduction and create a separation
of genetic, gestational, and social
parenthood.
Surrogate Motherhood

• Others argue that there is a

change in motives for creating
children: children are not
conceived for their own sakes,
but for another’s benefit. Much
is unknown.
Surrogate Motherhood

“What is the degree of stress

on the couple and especially
on the surrogate mother?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“Can true informed consent ever

be given by the surrogate, and
can anyone predict the emotions
associated with relinquishing a
child?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“What are the possible

adverse psychological
effects on the child?”
Surrogate Motherhood

"What identity crisis might ensue,

and will there be a desire on the
part of the child to know his/her
gestational mother?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“Will surrogate arrangements be

used not only by infertile
couples but also for the sake of
convenience, or by single men
or women?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“Should the surrogate

be paid?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“Would this lead to

commercialization of
surrogacy and expose the
surrogate mother to
possible exploitation?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“What happens when no

one wants a
handicapped
newborn?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“Should the couple

and surrogate remain
unknown to each
other?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“Should the
child be told?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“What kinds of records

should be kept, and
should the child have
access to them?”
Surrogate Motherhood

“What kind of medical

and psychological
screening should be
provided to all
parties?”