The genetic manipulation of plants, animals and microbes : the social and ethical issues for consumers : a discussion paper / by Roger Straughan.

  • Roger Straughan
Date:
1989
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The genetic manipulation of plants, animals and microbes : the social and ethical issues for consumers : a discussion paper / by Roger Straughan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    e«n«tic manipulation of plant«, animal* and microbes The genetic manipulation of plants, animals and microbes A discussion paper on the social and ethical issues for consumers by Dr Roger Straughan Introduction Genetic manipulation is a vast, complex and potentially emotive subject, and strict limits must be set to the scope of any report on the subject if it is to be useful and coherent. Therefore: this paper is restricted to issues concerning the genetic manipulation of plants, aninrtals and microbes. (Microbes are the smallest form of life and include bacteria, viruses, moulds and single-celled plants and animals.) The paper does not deal with the genetic manipulation of human beings; genetic manipulation is considered largely in the context of food production. Medical and other applications are not discussed in any detail; the issues raised are related to consumer interests, whenever possible and appropriate; this paper is not written from a specifically scientific, economic, sociological or political viewpoint, though it is of course necessary to refer to such viewpoints when appropriate. Given these limitations, precisely what sort of issues will the paper then focus upon, and from what perspective? The social/ethical issues refen-ed to in the title are intended to cover a wide variety of issues which raise questions about moral values, principles, obligations and rights. Scientific and technological questions tend to ask can X be done? while moral questions ask should it be done? As is seen in sections 3 to 5 these questions in the context of genetic manipulation can be 3
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