Biosafety, Ethics, and Regulation of Transgenic Animals

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of some of the central concerns identified for the development of transgenic animals. Some have argued that those responding to the environmental risks and animal welfare and health issues should be paying greater attention to ethics and normative values, both in the process of risk assessment and management and in risk communication. Others have argued that there should be stricter regulation of biotechnology. Central issues in both the ethical and regulatory debates are reviewed. We conclude with a discussion of the role that working scientists should be expected to play in attending to these issues and the need to be attentive to public perception of environmental and animal welfare impacts from transgenic techniques. In limiting the focus of the discussion to transgenic animals developed for agricultural, industrial and therapeutic applications, we do not consider issues associated with animals such as "knockout" mice altered solely for the purpose of studying gene functions.