An Ethical Assessment of Cisgenesis in Breeding Late Blight Resistant Potato |
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Authors: | H Jochemsen |
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Institution: | (1) Applied Philosophy Group, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Because of objections and worries related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the approval of GMO crops is a long and
expensive process. Recently some researchers argued that a specific form of genetic modification, cisgenesis, would be safer
and ethically more acceptable and therefore require a less stringent assessment. In this paper cisgenesis, as defined in recent
literature, is ethically evaluated. After some general remarks on ethics in science and technology, two different basic attitudes
towards reality are sketched as an evaluative framework for interventions in nature. Combined with general characteristics
of biotechnology in agriculture and a view of the role of genetic information in organisms, that framework helps to formulate
an ethical distinction between and evaluation of cisgenesis and transgenesis. It is argued that there is a significant ethical
difference between transgenesis and cisgenesis, but that nevertheless any form of genetic modification should be integrated
in a broader normative understanding of agriculture in order to work towards a more sustainable agriculture.
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Keywords: | Agriculture Biotechnology Cisgenesis Ethics Genetic modification Integrity Meaning-based ethics Precautionary principle Species identity Sustainability Transgenesis |
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