Ethics and biotech animals
In a heated debate at the FAO/WHO Codex meeting this morning, delegates had difficulties agreeing on the work on a guideline for genetically modified animals. There was a good document, but it had no explicit reference to ethical considerations. From the non-governmental organisations, we raised the point that ethics should be mentioned, and that we felt the wording was not sufficiently clear on this important matter. While some countries, including EU, India and Norway, agreed that ethics should be mentioned, other disagreed. IACFO, Greenpeace International and 49 Parallell also supported this, and added that environmental factors should be mentioned as well.
I am really deeply disappointed by this.
FAO and WHO both commented that ethics is indeed important. FAO suggested that we could organize a workshop to discuss the topic the day before the next session 2006.
The countries that do not want to mention ethics are arguing that this work will deal only with the scientific risk assessment of GMO foods, and that ethics are not a part of the risk assessment process.
In the FAO/WHO Expert consultation from 2003, ethics was indeed discussed at lenght. That expert consultation concluded, among other things, that
Ethics is rooted both in the world religions and in secular philosophies, while a sense of morality and moral value is common for everbody. Ethics comprises both a positive dimension relating to our conceptions of the good life/society, and a negative dimension relating to our judgements of what is morally wrong. For instance, owing to religion-based food practices relating to eating pork, the utilization of genetic material from pigs could present problems.
I am really deeply disappointed by this.
FAO and WHO both commented that ethics is indeed important. FAO suggested that we could organize a workshop to discuss the topic the day before the next session 2006.
The countries that do not want to mention ethics are arguing that this work will deal only with the scientific risk assessment of GMO foods, and that ethics are not a part of the risk assessment process.
In the FAO/WHO Expert consultation from 2003, ethics was indeed discussed at lenght. That expert consultation concluded, among other things, that
Ethics is rooted both in the world religions and in secular philosophies, while a sense of morality and moral value is common for everbody. Ethics comprises both a positive dimension relating to our conceptions of the good life/society, and a negative dimension relating to our judgements of what is morally wrong. For instance, owing to religion-based food practices relating to eating pork, the utilization of genetic material from pigs could present problems.
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