Embryo Research and Genetic Engineering Flashcards
What types of human GE are there?
- Somatic Cell
- Germ Line Therapy
- Enhancement Gene Therapy
What’s somatic cell engineering?
making genetic changes to particular cells
how does somatic cell engineering work?
a new altered gene is ‘fired’ or injected into cells where change is required using a ‘retrovirus vector’
give examples of where somatic cell genetic engineering can be useful
- a ‘self destruct’ gene can be attached to cancerous cells; good for hard to access areas like prostate cancer
- can stimulate pancreas to produce insulin
- can stimulate thyroid to produce antibodies
What did the Clothier Committee 1992 report on the ethics of Somatic Cell Genetic Engineering?
‘it poses no new ethical problems’
What does Germ Line Therapy entail?
altering germ (reproductive) cells so the genetic alteration will be passed onto the person’s children, eliminating hereditary diseases like haemophilia
What is risky about GL Therapy in comparison to SCGE?
a mistake in ST won’t extend beyond the patient, but an error in GL therapy may extend into the whole human gene pool with unquantifiable risks
What does Bernard Hoose argue about GL Therapy?
it should be banned until present knowledge has extended further; ban isn’t permanent as it needs to be renewed in light of our increasing knowledge.
IAN BARBOUR supports Hoose in ‘Ethics in an Age of Technology’
what is problematic about GL therapy?
there isn’t any clear agreements on which defects are to be eliminated which could lead to a form of Eugenics e.g. some people see homosexuals as deviants from the norm and therefore defective; must be corrected.
What does Joe Harris say about the dilemma of GL Therapy in ‘Biotechnology - Friend or Foe?’
‘On the one hand we must not make changes to the genetic structure of persons which will adversely affect their descendants. On the other hand we must not fail to remove genetic damage which we could remove, and which, if left In place, will cause harm to future people’
what is Eugenics?
genetically improving the quality of the gene pool as a whole to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics
What term did Gaylin coin about the unforeseen consequences of GE?
‘Frankenstein Factor’
According to Lucassen, what are the three main arguments against genetic engineering?
- We should not interfere with nature
- We should not alter the genetic constitution of organisms
- We should not alter the genetic constitutions of organisms to this extent
What does Lucassen reply to the objection that ‘We should not interfere with nature’
‘it would be unnatural not to interfere with nature’
What assumption do we have to challenge about nature?
there there is a link between what is ‘natural’ and what is ‘acceptable’ or ‘right’
Marquis de Sade’s quote about why nature is NOT linked to goodness
‘Nature averse to crime, I tell you that nature lives and breathes by it, hungers at all her pores for bloodshed, yearns with all her heart for the furtherance of cruelty’
Quote by Lucassen destroying link between nature and rightness
‘As moral agents, there are many natural desires which human beings should not conform to’
Why should nature be respected?
- Eastern religions say its divine
- Nature revered as an organism, as Lovelock proposed w theory of ‘Gaia’
problem of personhood
if one alters the genetic make-up of an individual does this result in destruction of one person and creation of another? is the person changed or is a new person created?
Enhancement Genetic Engineering
the transfer of genetic material intended to modify nonpathological human traits
patenting sections of the human genome case study
Before June 2013 more than 4,300 human genes were patented; but on June 13, 2013, in the case of the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that human genes cannot be patented in the U.S. because DNA is a “product of nature.”
what are the potential risks of Genetic Enhancement?
- reduce the diversity of human genome making human population less resistant to disease
- Techniques will only be available to the wealthy leading to a ‘two-tier’ society
- All alterations are germ line and given the ‘risk against reward’ argument they shouldn’t take place atm
Jeremy Lent on the ‘split humanity’ that could be caused by GE
‘one species, genetically and technologically enhanced, exploring entirely new ways of being human; the other species, genetically akin to us, barely surviving within its collapsed infrastructure.’
GE should be allowed
no difference between rectifying a disorder by surgery after a baby is born and rectifying it before through GE? Same goes for plastic surgery!
Religious objections to GE
God directly intervenes to produce each unique foetus so GE can’t be tolerated as its ‘playing God’
Issue of personhood with regards to GE
- it could lead to a person being regarded as ‘only’ his genes
- a human should be more than just his genetic make-up (religious objection) as being human isn’t a quality that can be determined genetically
rejecting GE is absurd given…
the centrality of natural selection to society
- evolutionary psychology claims natural selection is a central part of human mating
- in the US you can buy sperm from Nobel prize winners
what is the difference between…
a) choosing a fit husband for offspring
b) choosing to use the sperm of a fit man
c) genetically altering embryo so that offspring will be fit
What does Samuel Butler argue?
His sociobiological theory says humans are more complex than biology at present allows for, so whatever our genetics, this in itself won’t make someone great
What three things does genetic determinism omit from its theory according to Butler, which means it must be wrong?
human ‘will, effort and intelligence’
Who challenges the genetic determinism theory to show GE is problematic?
Steven Rose (‘Lifelines - Biology, Freedom and Determinism’)
Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (‘Figments of Reality - the Evolution of the Curious Mind’)
What do Rose, Stewart and Cohen reject?
they ‘reject the “it’s all in the genes” scenario, finding it to be a dangerously attractive but radically insufficient account of the complexities of human and animal life’
What does the Catholic Church say about GE?
in ‘Dignitas Personae’, issued by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican condemns the freezing of human embryos, genetic engineering, human cloning, animal/human genetic hybrids, and other procedures described as affronts to human dignity.
Key quotes from Dignitas Personae
- human cloning could lead to “biological slavery,”
- GE leads to a “shameful and utterly reprehensible … eugenic mentality,”
- IVF, by involving the destruction of unused embryos, implies “blithe acceptance” of an “enormous number of abortions.”
Quote by Stephen Hawking on GE
“With genetic engineering we could improve the human race.”
Quote by David King (Theologian) on GE
“Genetic engineering represents a fundamental threat to the human species.”
Catholic Church on Germ Line Therapy in Dignitas Personae
“Whatever genetic modifications are effected on the germ cells of a person will be transmitted to all offspring. Because the risks connected to any genetic manipulation are considerable and as yet not fully controllable, in the present state of research, it is not morally permissible to act in a way that may cause possible harm to the resulting progeny.”
What Christian arguments are there in favour of GE?
- God created us with free will, and made everyone of us with a plan for our lives before we were even born. Thus, God must have planned for us to develop GE.
- Christians should follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Jesus healed people, so we should do as much as we can to heal people, which may involve GE.
- In story of Noah’s Ark, God said that he would no longer meddle and would let us develop as we wish; we are “co-creators with God.”
Example of animal GE
Tracey the Sheep was bred to produce AAT (substance used in treatment of emphysema)
What are ‘xenotransplants’ and what are the problems associated with it
transplanting genetic material from one species to another; problematic as diseases can be transmitted across the species boundaries e.g. swine fever
what are the risks of GE of plants?
- genetic pollution
- GMOS (leads to emotive labelling)
Case study of GE for Ciba-Geigy AG
GE’d maize so when corn borers (major pest) infects plants, they are killed. Increased yield but led to cross-fertilisation with wild grasses, affecting wildlife.
How has GE been used positively for plants?
- Potato blight engineering means infected plants commit suicide
- useful to make plants herbicide or pesticide resistant, so less herbicides are used and risk of sprays to humans decreased
Plant GE statistics
there are 78.8 million hectares of land planted with GE crops in the US, 71 percent of these are resistant to herbicide
What would MacIntyre (VE) say to GE?
you must understand the context, and that what may be valued in one society may not be in another: xenotransplantation would work in America and Europe, but would not for countries with pagan belief systems where people may feel they have spirits from animals in them if the organ grew in an animal. Problematic to grow a human heart in a pig for a Jewish patient?
What would Situationists say?
As rules are only guidelines and action is relative, depends on circumstance.
- situationism is concerned with humans means so ok to use animals to grow organs or pharmaceuticals if its pragmatic and works.
- Somatic gene therapies are more loving.
- BUT money for G.Enhancement better spent on the sick
Natural Law Response: depends on PURPOSE
- against enhancement genetic engineering, but may be happy with somatic-cell therapies that corrected disorders.
- against using animals to produce pharmaceuticals or to grow organs as this runs contrary to their God-given purpose.
- concerns wouldbe the unknown effects (will it harm humans - contrary to a primary precept), and uneven distribution of knowledge (western companies patenting genes and charging developing countries to use them).
- BUT one of the primary precepts of Aquinas’ NLT is to protect and preserve human life, so ‘pharming’ and xenotransplantation would be seen as acceptable.
Kantian response
- is there was anything in principle wrong with such research.
- Some Kantians disagree, as they do not see the embryo as a ‘potential person’ yet.
- Kant would be happy with xenotransplantation (using animals to grow organs for humans) as long as there were no risks to humans.
- Animals have no intrinsic value for Kant as they are not rational
Mark Sagoff
science cannot demonstrate that there is a specific point at which a “… glob of protoplasm is now sufficiently endowed with moral freedom that it has become a responsible agent or sufficiently endowed with cultural, aesthetic, and ethical capacities that it has become a human being”.
Utilitarian Response
- Bentham considers all sentient creatures so there’s problems with using animals for pharmaceuticals or to grow human organs.
- Singer would consider the interests of animals alongside humans. If it were just a single pig dying to save a human life, Singer would value the human far more than the pig, bc the human has far more and greater interests. BUT many of these technologies involve harming a much larger number of animals, which would be a concern.
Main problem with teleological approach to GE?
its impossible to know the effects of GM.
Michael Specter on GM
‘All the food we eat… has been modified by mankind. Genetic engineering is only one particularly powerful way to do what we have been doing for eleven thousand years’
James Lovelock
‘I suspect any worries about genetic engineering may be unnecessary. Genetic mutations have always happened naturally, anyway’
