There are many ethical issues that are needed to be considered while scientifically handling and creating transgenic animals. This presentation the bioethics which are related to the transgenic animals.

1. -By Kawaljeet Kaur

3.  System of moral principles
 Leans towards decisions based upon individual character
 Concerned with what is good for individual and moral society
 Ethical problem involves
 Conflict
 Choosing between Equally desirable and undesirable alternatives
 Balancing options
 Ethics is considered about what should be considered right and wrong

5.  An organism that has DNA from another species inserted into its genome
 As new technologies are developed the definition may have to change to incorporate
all the varying types of genetically engineered
 Organism R.J. Wall: “The definition of transgenic animals is evolving, but a transgenic
animal is one containing recombinant DNA molecules in its genome that were
introduced by intentional human intervention” (Wall, 1996)

6.  Transgenesis involves
1. DNA cloning
2. Pronuclear manipulations
3. Embryonic stem cell manipulations

7.  The efficiency decreases the more complex the animal is.
 Poor embryo survival rate is not fully understood, so much of the current transgenic
research is targeted at increasing efficiencies.

8.  To help scientist to identify, isolate and characterize Gene in order to understand more
about the functions And regulations
 To provide research models of human diseases
 To help develop new drugs
 To enhance livestock
 To provide organ and tissue for Use in human transplant surgeries

9.  Disease models – HIV mouse, Alzheimer Mouse, oncomouse, Parkinson’s fly.
 Transpharmers - Herman the Bull
 Xenotransplanters – pigs
 Transgenic food sources – Bovine Growth hormone, human growth hormone
 Transgenic biological models - ANDi the monkey, Supermouse, Smart mouse, and
Youth mouse

11.  Ethical issues that arise when considering the use of transgenic animals
 As can be expected for any controversial technology, arguments can be made both for
and against transgenic use
 In deciding whether transgenic animals should be made, one must weigh
 the benefits the animal confers to society,
 balanced against any detriment (harm) to the animal or
 any risk the animal may pose to the environment or humanity.

12. ETHICAL ISSUES OF
TRANSGENIC ANIMALS
 Transgenic animals raise several particular moral issues (quite apart from any
damage they might do to the environment):
 Are animals that combine species an unethical alteration of the natural order of the
universe?
 Is it unethical to modify an animal's genetic make-up for a specific purpose, without
knowing in advance if there will be any side-effects that will cause suffering to the
animal?
 Does 'creating' animals by genetic engineering amount to treat the animals entirely as
commodities?
 Is it unethical to create 'diseased' animals that are very likely to suffer?
 Suffering may last for a long time in these animals as researchers want to conduct long-term
investigations into the development of diseases.

13.  Genetic engineering and selective breeding appear to violate animal rights, because
they involve manipulating animals for human ends as if the animals were nothing
more than human property, rather than treating the animals as being of value in
themselves.
 Recent action to allow animals to be patented reinforces the idea of animals as human
property, rather than beings in their own right.

14.  danger these animals may pose to human beings (usually to human health), rather
than any implications for the animals themselves.

15.  Biotechnology can be good for animals. Selective breeding and genetic engineering
can benefit animals in many ways:
 Improving resistance to disease
 Breeding to remove characteristics that cause injury
 selecting cattle without horns
 But biotechnology can also be bad for animals - the good effects for the breeder can
offset by painful side-effects for the animals:
 Modern pigs have been bred to grow extra fast - some breeds now grow too fast for
their hearts, causing discomfort when animals are too active
 Broiler chickens are bred to grow fast - some now grow too fast for their legs

16.  Against transgenic animals:
1. God laid down the structure of creation and any tampering with it is sinful.
2. Manipulating DNA is manipulating 'life itself' - and this is tampering with something
that God did not intend humanity to meddle with.
 In favor of transgenic animals:
1. As human beings have been given 'dominion' over the animals, they are entitled to
tamper with them.
2. Paleontology shows that the structure of creation has changed over time as some
species became extinct and new ones came into being. They say that this shows
that there is nothing fixed about the structure of creation.

17.  The research could result in monkeys capable of producing human organs for
transplants, leading to a host of ethical concerns
 Purpose of these experiments are to test the viability of using pigs to grow human
organs for transplants
 Not conducted in Spain
 The experiments were conducted in China. Why?
 In the United States, federal Funds cannot be used to create human-animal Chimeras.
MONUMENT TO THE LABORATORY MOUSE INSTITUTE OF
CYTOLOGY AND GENETICS IN AKADEMGORODOK, RUSSIA

18.  Creation of transgenic animals is a very controversial topic that requires legal policies
to help ensure minimal animal suffering while maximizing the benefit to society
 On one hand, animal patenting offers incentives to the inventor and furthers
biomedical research, on the other hand many protest the authority of the US Patent
and Trademark Office to patent animal life

19.  In order for an invention to be patented in the US, the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)
states that it must fulfill the requirements of novelty, utility, and non-obviousness (PTO,
1987, 35 U.S.C. § 101, § 102, § 103)
 Title 35 of the United States Code explains that “Whoever invents or discovers any new
and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and
useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefore, subject to the conditions and
requirements of this title” (Bitlaw 2000)
 A transgenic animal, for the most part, fulfills all of these requirements.

20.  First animal patent - Awarded in 1988 for the Harvard Oncomouse
 Oncomouse – A mouse genetically modified to be prone to developing tumors at a
much higher rate than a normal Mouse
 This court case was one of the most complex in US history, with several appeals, but
eventually acted as a landmark case for all others
 Patents have been awarded for the pigs, mouse, goat, sheep and methods and
technologies used to produce the animals.
 A patent was given to Avigenics Inc. for a “Windowing Technology” which entails
creating a hole through eggshells that allows the creation of transgenic chickens,
which will be very important as a food source as well as in drug production (Avigenics
Inc., 2000)
Animal patents

21.  Claim 1 of the patent was as follows:
A transgenic non-human mammal all of whose germ cells and somatic cells contain a
recombinant activated oncogene sequence introduced into said mammal, or ancestor
of said mammal, at an embryonic stage (Leder and Stewart, 1984)
 This means that DuPont, which now holds the patent, may legally challenge anyone who
uses such an animal without their permission
 who gets to use the mouse?
 Nowadays when a patent is awarded, it applies only to one species of animal and one
gene

22.  In 1990, the examiner from the European Patent Office (EPO) initially rejected the
patent on the grounds that patents on plants and animals are forbidden by the
European Patent Convention
 The Canadian Supreme Court stated that “A higher life form is not patentable because
it is not a new manufacture or composition of matter”
 BIOTECanada, a biotechnology firm, says that the ruling will discourage researchers
from creating research models and transgenic animals, therefore Canada will lose the
future benefits

23.  In 1987, the Patent and Trademark Office confirmed the decision of the Supreme
Court in a statement to the Official Gazette: “The Patent and Trademark Office now
considers non-naturally occurring non-human multi-cellular organisms, including
animals, to be patentable subject matter within the scope of 35 U.S.C. s. 101.”

26.  Knowledge of biotechnology grows
 The more that you draw attention to the science of biotechnology the fewer secrets it
has
 Not only give an economical incentive but you also raise awareness about the science
 biotechnology will no longer be an obscure science, and will be drawn into the public
eye where more support for the science will lead to more advances

27.  One of the biggest objections to the PTO is they patented animals without taking into
consideration whether any animals should be patented at all
 Some religious groups have objected to patenting animals, stating that putting a
patent on an animal is the same as putting a price on it
 Another concern is economic, that all the patents for transgenic farm animals will be
held by a small number of corporations which will drive the family farm out of business
 Then there is the slippery-slope argument, which asks the question could animal
patents lead to human patents? It is already acceptable to patent human genes in
animals, who knows how far this could go

29.  Do we want students at our universities to be coopted into a creed of greed, that
subordinates humane values to financial gain (a concept that also expresses itself in
oppressive labor policies and indifference to political and social justice)?
 Do we want them to internalize the values of academic administrators who have
supported the selling of the universities to corporate interests and the racist apartheid
regime in South Africa with their investment policies and continued war research and
the production of nuclear weapons as part of the university's mission?
 Are these the attitudes, the goals, the values we prize?

30.  Ethical Considerations in the Use of Transgenic Animals, Raymond Giraud, Stanford
University
 The Modern Industrial Revolution: Transgenic Animals and the Patent Law, Robert L.
King
 TRANSGENIC ANIMALS AND SOCIETY by Neil crawford and Arno Vandebroek
 Animal Transgenesis and Cloning: scientific, Religious and Ethical Considerations
Gary J. Curran and Yuri J. Koszaryc
 Ethical issues relating to transgenic animal production, anzccart news
 Research ethics for animal biotechnology by Paul B. Thompson
 ETHICS, MORALITY AND ANIMAL BIOTECHNOLOGY, bbsrc.