Project on transgenic animals and plants …

Transgenic animals are animals that have been deliberately bred for research and that contain elements of two different species - they are creatures that blur the barrier between species.

These animals are often deliberately created with genetic defects, and these defects may well cause the animal to have a bad quality of life. A mouse has been created, for example, that has been genetically modified to develop cancer.

Ethical issues of transgenic animals

Transgenic animals raise several particular moral issues (quite apart from any damage they might do to the environment):

• Are animals that combine species an unethical alteration of the natural order of the universe?
• Is it unethical to modify an animal's genetic make-up for a specific purpose, without knowing in advance if there will be any side-effects that will cause suffering to the animal?
• Does 'creating' animals by genetic engineering amount to treat the animals entirely as commodities?
• Is it unethical to create 'diseased' animals that are very likely to suffer?
  • Suffering may last for a long time in these animals as researchers want to conduct long-term investigations into the development of diseases

Religious views of transgenic animals

Against transgenic animals:

• God laid down the structure of creation and any tampering with it is sinful.
• Manipulating DNA is manipulating 'life itself' - and this is tampering with something that God did not intend humanity to meddle with.

In favour of transgenic animals:

• As human beings have been given 'dominion' over the animals, they are entitled to tamper with them.
• Palaeontology shows that the structure of creation has changed over time as some species became extinct and new ones came into being. They say that this shows that there is nothing fixed about the structure of creation.

Transgenic animals and religious food laws

Transgenic animals pose problems for religions that restrict the foods that their believers can eat, since they may produce animals that appear to be one species, but contain some elements of a forbidden species.