ABSTRACT
In Netherlands, there have been two public debates on bio-ethical issues. In 1993, a lay panel of fifteen people discussed for two and a half days with an expert panel on the social and moral dilemmas around the genetic modification of animals. In 1995, the second public debate focused on predictive genetic research. The chapter considers the variety of objections raised by the majority of the lay panel in 1993. It provides a translation of them in more philosophical terms, and divides them into various categories by using two criteria: the degree of assessibility and the moral status of the possible negative consequences of genetic modification of animals. The chapter concludes that some of the risks of modern biotechnology can be described exhaustively or mainly in scientific terms, whereas others are describable primarily in philosophical, theological and ethical terms. A European ethics should be understood as the systematic and critical reflection on the moral dilemmas facing the European population.
