ABSTRACT
The previous chapter examined what implications genetic engineering could have for animal welfare. A number of problem areas were identified, against a context of our present understanding of what is entailed in the good welfare and well being of our fellow creatures. This chapter now assesses how far these negative aspects may, or may not, be justifiable on ethical grounds. It looks at them both in absolute terms and in the context of the benefits that are sought. As was noted in Chapter 1, most applications of animal transgenesis to date are targeted not at conventional improvements in animal production, but at novel medical applications. Hence this chapter focuses in particular on the dilemmas posed by animal intervention and suffering for the purpose of alleviating human suffering through medicine, in respect of case studies 8, 9 and 10 on transgenic animals – pharmaceutical proteins in sheep’s milk, xenotransplantation and mouse models – and Case Study 11 on animal cloning.
