Animal Biotechnolgy Ethics Morality Indroduction
In this chapter we focus mainly on ethical, moral and social issues surrounding relatively recent developments that involve genetic modification, i.e., the direct manipulation of an animal's genetic make-up. Genetic modification of animals was first achieved with mice in 1980, and of cattle, sheep and pigs by about 1985.
We will also consider issues raised by the new technology called nuclear transfer. Here, whole nuclei and the genes which they carry are transferred. This is the process that was used to produce the sheep Dolly, and subsequent cloned animals. It does not involve altering the genes, it rather involves copying them. In this respect it resembles what gardeners do when they "take cuttings" of a plant to propagate it.