Abstract
An introduction to ethical issues surrounding the nature, production, and distribution, of genetically modified crops and foods.
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Notes
- 1.
Utilitarianism gets defined in different ways, sometimes including a particular view of what good is to be maximized. The main point for us in this chapter concerns consequentialism, the claim that right and wrong actions are to be defined in terms of the consequences of those actions.
- 2.
It is sometimes said that all there is to morality is expression of emotion. This is not at all what is being suggested here. (Cf. Rachels 1990, Ch. 3 on subjectivism and emotivism.)
- 3.
Others might use the slippery slope argument to argue for stopping much sooner – on the grounds that we might end up making Egg Machines! Would this be reasonable?
- 4.
I will discuss this in relation to plant genetic resources from developing nations, but analogous things could be said concerning animals such as chickens, or any of the animals of which the Egg Machines are “descendants”.
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Gifford, F. (2010). Biotechnology. In: Comstock, G.L. (eds) Life Science Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8792-8_9
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