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The Ethical Use of GMOs

The Ethical Use of GMOs. 25 March 2005. Dr. Sakarindr Bhumiratana President National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA). GM Products: Benefits and Controversies. What is a principle-based approach to bioethics?. Principles-Based Ethics The “Big Four” Principles:.

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The Ethical Use of GMOs

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  1. The Ethical Use of GMOs 25 March 2005 Dr. Sakarindr Bhumiratana President National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)

  2. GM Products: Benefits and Controversies

  3. What is a principle-based approach to bioethics? Principles-Based Ethics The“Big Four”Principles: • Respect for person • Beneficence • Justice • Confidentiality If in conflict, they should be balanced against one another (but how?)

  4. Two kinds of ethical arguments GMOs • 1. Non-scientific base • GMOs are wrong, no matter how great the benefits may be. • 2. Scientific base • GMOs are wrongbecause risks outweigh benefits. Talking past each other

  5. GMOs: Ethical Considerations • Do GM foods differ in any relevant ways from non-GM foods? • Are any differences significant as to how they will they affect human health or the environment? • How strictly are GMOs being tested? • Who oversees the regulation and registration process? 1. Transgenic technology has caused some people to raise questions about the nature and consequences of GMOs. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  6. GMOs: Ethical Considerations • If they are ethically acceptable, then there is nothing wrong about producing/using/consuming them. • If they are not acceptable, people should stop producing them. 2. The issue is whether GMOs/GM foods morally/ethically acceptable. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  7. GMOs: Ethical Considerations • If we are to resolve ethical (as opposed to scientific) controversies associated with GMOs/GM foods, a key step is to acknowledge differences in basic values, and then debate the matter in terms of these deeper commitments and concerns. 3. Why the deeper ethical-philosophical reasons underlying the GMO debates are so important. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  8. Components of Acceptability • What GMOs are we talking about?” What Product? • “Different products have different ethical dimensions” Judgements about ethical acceptability depend on answering several preliminary questions: e.g. Bovine somatotropin Roudup-Ready Crop BT corn Golden Rice Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  9. Components of Acceptability (cont’d) 2. Bear on ethical acceptability is the context in which the analysis or argument is set. • need to be paid to all of relevant context in which a judgment about the ethical acceptability of GMOs can (or should) be made. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  10. What Ethical Paradigm? • Consequentialist Ethics • Ethics of Autonomy / Consent • Ethic of Virtue / Tradition Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  11. Ethics and Agricultural Biotechnology • Consequentialist Perception on Agricultural Biotech • subscribe to the view that actions, policies, practices and technologies ought to promote people’s needs and preferences. • the question is whether agriculture does this, and the answer is usually that it does. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  12. Ethics and Agricultural Biotechnology 2. Autonomy/Consent and Food/Agricultural Biotech • begins with the axiom that self-determination implies that people have inviolable rights, which establishes the ethical demand that people be given a choice concerning how they want to act and be treated. • people have the ethical right to choose what they consume/purchase and to avoid or reject it if they so desire. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  13. Ethics and Agricultural Biotechnology 3. Ethics of Virtue/Tradition and Food/Agricultural Biotech • virtue/tradition ethics defines ethical acceptability in terms of consistency with some deeply-held values and virtues, whether they relate to farming as a way of life, to life in accord with Nature, or to following God’s plan and will. • Not all virtue/tradition ethical perspectives will necessarily reject GMOs or biotechnology overall. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  14. The Consequentialist Perspective on Agricultural Biotech Consequentialists subscribe to the view that actions, policies, practices and technologies ought to promote people’s needs and preferences. Consequentialist goals: (QQP) (1) Quantity: Produce enough food to feed a growing and non-rural population. (2) Quality:Produce food that is safe and nutritionally adequate. (3) Price:Ensure that food is generally affordable for consumers while also ensuring that farmers receive profits from their work sufficient to keep them in business. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  15. The Consequentialist Perspective on Agricultural Biotech The key to achieving QQP is efficiencyin agricultural production. -This means getting the most output from the least inputs, or in standard farming terms, productivity and yields. -The so-called “first generation”1 of GM technology was designed to help farmers achieve greater degrees of efficiency. - It is not surprising, then, that farmers and policymakers concerned with efficiency, and ultimately with QQP, should want technologies continually improved so as to achieve even greater productivity and yeild — all the time maintaining safe, affordable food. If GMOs/GM foods contribute to the satisfaction of people’s wants/preferences, they are ethically justifiable— perhaps even ethically required (Burkhardt, 2001).

  16. The Consequentialist Perspective on Agricultural Biotech • In consquentialist terms. • “greatest good for the greatest number” • Concerns that some things that people want other than QQP. • GMOs may endanger these “other goods.” For example, environmental protections, etc. • Issues for long-term consequences of GMOs: • - Will our children’s health be placed at risk by the use of GM technology? • - What about future people’s wants and preferences? Are • they being placed at risk? Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  17. Autonomy/Consent and Food/Agricultural Biotech • The autonomy/consent paradigm begins with the axiom that self-determination implies that people have inviolable rights. • (Foremost among these rights is the right not to be harmed or placed at risk against one’s will.) • Autonomy/consent ethicists and Consequentialists concern about: • Is our food safe? • Transparency of the food system. • - farm production techniques • - transportation and processing systems • - packaging and marketing activities Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  18. Autonomy/Consent and Food/Agricultural Biotech • People have a right to purchase items that will not unknowingly place them at risk and thus may demand the choice to avoid these products. The strongest supporters of some form of labeling of GM foods. • Many people believe that the autonomy/consent issues that are raised are not so much a matter of biotechnology as a matter of power and control: consumers and farmers want greater control over the choices available to them in their respective arenas. • Farmers’ choices. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  19. Autonomy/Consent and Food/Agricultural Biotech People have the ethical right to: - choose what they are consuming - avoid or reject it if they so desire Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  20. Ethics of Virtue/Tradition and Food/Agricultural Biotech Agrarianism: - views agriculture as more than a business or economic sector in society: agriculture is a “way of life” - sees the traditional family farm as a place where real human values and virtues can be practiced. - GMOs are designed, intended, for business-like efficient production; are not designed to enhance the quality of life for farm families or their communities; favor larger farms, make traditional agriculture less competitive; may make foodstuffs cheaper, forcing traditional farmers out of business. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  21. Ethics of Virtue/Tradition and Food/Agricultural Biotech Nature-ism: • “playing God” • ecosystem -- upsetting of the operation of ecosystems. Not to cause irreparable damage. • for Nature-ists, once we recognize the delicate balancing processes that constitute ecosystems or Nature, we must see that human beings have no right to manipulate species or processes in this way. Ref: Jeffrey Burkhardt, IFAS, UF

  22. Conclusion • Ethics and Agricultural Biotechnology: • Consequentiality perception on agricultural Biotech • Autonomy / consent and food agricultural biotech • Virtue / tradition and food agricultural biotech

  23. Need to: 1. Risk assessment • maintain a safe, nutritious, and plentiful food supply • preserve ecosystems • balance production and wise stewardship of the earth

  24. Need to: • demand scientific and political vigilance • support: regulatory oversight on case-by-case basis • Do not support: a ban on all GMOs or GM crops 2. Regulation (Risk Management)

  25. Need to: 3. Communication • increase public understanding of the science behind GMOs debate • develop tools for public communication and promoting the public understanding of this and related issues • not just one-way communication but should encourage dialogue between all participants

  26. Need to: 3. Communication (cont’d) • two-way flow of understanding between scientists and the public is also required • make sure all stakeholder voice are heard

  27. Thank you

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