ABSTRACT
One major field of genetic engineering is the manipulation of animals in such a way that their ability to serve our needs is enhanced. This, however, is often objected to because of what seems to be an extreme way of instrumentalizing our environment. It is argued that in literally redesigning animals in order to improve their utility we treat them ‘as though they have been created primarily for our own exclusive use’,1 and that there is thus a certain belief underlying this particular application of genetic engineering, namely the belief that the whole non-human world is somehow meant to be used by us, that it is our rightful property with which we are permitted to do whatever we want. Genetic engineering (of animals for human benefit), writes Andrew Linzey, ‘represents the concretization of the absolute claim that animals belong to us and exist for us’.2 Although humans have always used and selectively bred animals, genetic engineering is thought to be special in the extent to which it allows us to make other living beings our own: ‘What is new is that we are now employing the technological means of absolutely subjugating the nature of animals so that they become totally and completely human property.’3
