Ethical Considerations in the Use of Transgenic Animals

Abstract

It may seem strange that a professor of literature should be addressing biologists on ethical issues related to recombinant DNA. My literary interests and teaching, however, have been concentrated for some years on what Jean-Paul Sartre called litterature engagee, writing that confronts political and social issues, that is consciously in and of the world and involved in the transformation of reality, rather tIlan standing outside it. Together with other like-minded faculty, I also got involved in political struggles at Stanford during the era of university complicity in the conduct of the war in Vietnam. 1hat was a time when many in the academic world were moved to undertake an analysis of the university's function in society, to criticize its corporatization, and to patticipate in adversatial action against its administrative leadership on many fronts. But the expression of ethical qualms about the political impact of the university in the world ought not to be limited to extra-curricular activity. Ethical issues in academe are too often subordinated to skill development and the transmission of ideas, with scant attention paid to their moral implications. Teaching also often tends toward the promotion of careerism and a conception of success narrowly defined in tenns of professional achievement (for one's students and also for oneself). Like many others, I have also come to the conviction that the struggle for human rights and social justice cannot be isolated from concern for the welfare and the rights of nonhuman animals, whose exploitation and abuse have taken place on a scale that dwarfs that of even the most oppressed human beings. As a result, of course, a number of my friends in the medical school, allies in other struggles, are now on the other side of the fence. Even so, many thoughtful scientists have serious reservations about the biotechnical revolution and, not least among its marvels, the creation of transgenic animals. It is eminently understandable to view the development of transgenic animals as an exciting area of research, a new technology, promising new biologically engineered solutions to many important problems-among them, food and health. But, like many other areas of modem scientific research and development, the history ofbiotechnology has also been marked by less altruistic promises: fame, promotion, and, of course, financial reward for individuals, as well as immense potential profits for the institutions that employ them. For some universities, grants from the National Institutes of Health have become so important in the budget that they have taken the place of the Department