Subscribe to my Feed
« Hard financial times can provoke employment lawsuits | Home | Business apology tip #10 - do better next time »
Is it ethical to breed fluorescent monkeys?
By Lauren | June 4, 2009
The Washington Post reported this week that Japanese scientists have created genetically modified monkeys that glow green under ultraviolet light. Most significantly, these little creatures pass their “glow in the dark” genes to their offspring, a major milestone in the field of medical genetics. Bioengineers are now hoping to use this breakthrough to produce animals that will carry a range of human diseases, with an eye toward using them for medical research.
Those of us who care about ethics are deeply troubled.
Some of my colleagues focus on the fact that monkeys are almost genetically identical to people. They fear that this step takes us that much closer to genetic experimentation on humans. Ultimately, we could end up with a society where wealthy would-be parents could “order” designer babies (”We’ll take one tall, slim girl with a 180-point IQ, please”) while the less well-to-do could not. Take that vision to extremes, and you quickly come up with a futuristic nightmare.
My own concerns are more immediate. Lab animals typically do not enjoy comfortable lives. They are poked, prodded, drugged, operated on and dissected, all in the name of medical advancement. Breeding animals to suffer illnesses and undergo frightening, painful and dangerous experiments is downright inhumane. We don’t want the diseases ourselves - can it be possibly be right to inflict them on other species?
I recognize and applaud researchers’ desire to find cures for cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, and the host of other ills that plague humanity. But if our scientific know-how has advanced to the point where we can breed genetically altered animals, we can surely find other, kinder ways to test potential cures. Yes, we can create fluorescent monkeys. But that doesn’t mean we should.
To read the Post article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/articles/jan01/monkey.htm.
Topics: Business Ethics |
June 18th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
[...] presents Is it ethical to breed fluorescent monkeys? posted at The Business Ethics Blog, saying, “The science of genetic engineering is not always [...]
June 27th, 2009 at 8:26 am
[...] modified monkeys that glow green under ultraviolet light. Most. Read the original here: Is it ethical to breed fluorescent monkeys? | The Business Ethics Blog Social [...]