Genetically Modifying Livestock for Improved Welfare: A Path Forward

Many people love hamburgers but unfortunately many of these products come from an industrial farming system in which animals live with little space to move, and suffer from illness and injury. Undoubtedly, these animals experience pain and distress for the benefit of humans, which draws us into an ethical dilemma. What responsibility do humans have to ensure the welfare of animals that are farmed and slaughtered? The authors of Genetically Modifying Livestock for Improved Welfare: A Path Forward suggest that we genetically modify livestock animals to reduce their capacity to sense pain and therefore increase their welfare.

Consequentialist ethical theory states that the most ethical decision is the one in which good results are maximized and bad results are minimized. With this logic, the authors argue that genetically modifying (GM) livestock could reduce suffering in animals (a good result) and therefore ethically justify the production of GM cattle. Gene-editing techniques such as zinc-finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas) offer the potential to disrupt pain pathways and allow animals to still experience pleasurable sensations while minimizing painful sensations. Some have even proposed GM animals that would have no eyes, ears, or sensory nerve endings leaving them not much more than insentient little nuggets of muscle that can be harvested and eaten.

When asked, the public is troubled by the idea of eating GM animals often citing the “unnaturalness” of genetic editing. However, if questions regarding GM animals are framed in a way that highlights the motives (promoting animal welfare) then perhaps public opinion will change. How would you feel about eating gene-edited animals whose welfare was promoted by lessening their capacity to feel pain?

Crowded Hereford Cattle Unloading from a Lorry

Photo: Getty Images/DANIEL GARCIA

Link to Paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10806-018-9719-6

Elaine Miller – Potluck 2/11/2020