« Rapport om framtidens medicinska teknik | Main | Upplös äktenskapet »
September 11, 2005
Don't make a monkey out of genome kinship
Waldemar Ingdahl writes about the genetic similarity between apes and humans in Basing ethics on genetic similarities is no way to go, in the Financial Times of September 10th.
Clive Cookson proposes the effectual end of using chimpanzees as scientific subjects in "Genome kinship is worth our protection" (FT Weekend, September 3-4). In line with philosopher Peter Singer he equals research on chimpanzee with performing research on human subjects who lack the mental capacity to give informed consent. That raises the ethical criteria for research too far. It also diminishes the rights of those with mental handicaps that are far more protected in research, precisely since they are unable to give their full informed consent.
Animal testing, also on primates, is necessary for science in order to minimize human suffering through important experiments. Animal testing is already today being burdened by very restrictive regulation, effectively increasing costs and slowing down the development of new treatments.
The role of animal testing is a part of a broader criticism against modern technological medicine, and must be met by a discussion of the underlying values of science. Today, we often make too much out of the genetic similarities between different forms of life. Humans share 86 per cent of their genome with mice, 38 per cent with the fruit flies, 14 per cent with rice plants, and 7 per cent with the much studied bacterium Escherichia coli. Perhaps research should not be done on rats either, because of their relative genetic similarity with us?
We are certainly similar in many respects, but that is not the relevant question. It is a slippery slope argument that does not follow deductively, that since apes share some attributes with humans, they should share them all. We have to be more specific on what attributes are relevant, and point out the important differences between human and ape: that humans possess capacity for reason and moral agency. Basing our ethics on genetic similarity, will not give us a good guideline neither for good research nor for what constitutes legitimate animal testing.
Posted by Waldemar at September 11, 2005 10:39 AM