Genetically modified animals: ethical issues.

The method of ethical analysis is reviewed and applied to questions relating to the unintended consequences, ownership, and metaphysical significance of genetically modified animals. The question of how genetics and recombinant DNA discoveries have an impact on human understanding of the moral community and the limits of acceptable action are emphasized. The potential for genetically modified animals presents a challenge to implicit norms for defining these boundaries. Four philosophical responses to this challenge are reviewed: fundamentalism, conventionalism, dualism, and naturalism. The naturalist response is most consistent with contemporary biology, but it also entails that animals have limited moral significance.