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This article is from the Food Science FAQ, bypking123@sympatico.ca (Paul E. J. King) with numerous contributions by others.

8. Doesn't gene transfer from one species to another create the risk of ethical problems or even cannibalism?

The officially appointed UK Committee on the Ethics of Genetic
Modification and Food Use, chaired by the Rev. John Polkinghorne,
carried out a wide public consultation and issued a report in
September 1993 on all of the moral and ethical issues involved. This
was accepted by the UK Government and welcomed by IFST. The Committee
found that the concerns were misconceptions rather than of real
substance, arising from lack of knowledge, outside the scientific
community, of just what was involved.

The fact is that any gene extracted from one species for copying
into another, is not itself inserted but is copied in the laboratory
and diluted millions of times before a single gene is transferred.
The chance that the original gene would be found are much less than
the chance of recovering a particular drop of water from all the
oceans of the world. If this were widely understood fears of
cannibalism or of contravening religious food taboos would be seen to
be unwarranted. Unfortunately, this fact does not make good media
copy, whereas sensational "cannibalism" scare stories do.

The Polkinghorne Committee's conclusions were:

a. genetic modification of food and medicines is here to stay.
It is not something to be stopped, and it would not be ethically
right or necessary that it should be;

b. there is no reason for any ban on the use of copy genes of
human origin or from animals subject to dietary restrictions, but
scientists working in this field should be discouraged from using
such genes where alternatives would be equally effective;

c. products containing such copy genes should be labelled to
enabled consumers to make informed choices;

d. government and industry should look for ways of explaining
genetic modification to the general public.

 

Continue to:

• prev: 7. Isn't genetic modification a dangerous interference with nature?
• Index
• next: 9. Shouldn't all genetically modified foods, or those containing genetically modified ingredients, be labelled as such, to warn consumers?

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