Lisa O’Neil
Ethics and Genetic Engineering Essay

Ethics are part of our everyday decisions, in order to be ethical we need to firstly understand the basis of ethics.
The word ‘Ethics’ comes from the greek word ‘ethikos’ which relates to the customary way to behave in society. Ethics is a branch of philosophy dates back to before 367 b.c.

Famously in the history of ethics and philosophy were ‘’The Three Wise Greek Men’’ Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Socrates was a teacher of philosophy and Plato was Socrates student for approximately ten years, and when Socrates died, Aristophanes became Plato's student. Aristotle views were that ‘’ethics is a virtue of happiness, and that the pursuit of virtue is the highest and noblest aim for a human being’’ . Aristotle can be seen as saying ‘’ Nobody would choose to live without friends even if they had everything else they desired ‘’ (quoted from The Puzzle of Ethics- Peter Vardy pg 31).

Socrates took a practical view on ethics, he was concerned with ‘’how an individual would live in order to achieve happiness’’. Socrates can be seem as saying; ‘’Think hard enough and you will always find that doing the right thing is best for you ‘’ ( quoted in Peter singers A companion to Ethics, Blackwell p. 125 ).

Plato's view was much more in depth and most famously contradicts Socrates work.
Plato believes ethics is ‘’ knowledge is the virtue of happiness ‘’ . Plato can be seen as saying ‘’ If you believe something is right than its right, but if you believe something is wrong but still go ahead , this is unethical’’ .
‘’An individual human being is the measure of all things’’ (quoted from The puzzle of ethics-pg 9 Peter Vardy).

There is many different types of ‘ethics’ for example: utilitarianism ethics, where as a person believes the wrong or right thing to do will depend on the outcome for instance; if a man was to choose a man to be tortured in order to save one thousand lives, than a utilitarian would choose for the man to be tortured . Overall he would believe saving one thousand people is the right thing to do .( This would have branched from Plato's theory. )
A utilitarianism decision is based on the grounds ‘’The greatest happiness is the greatest number’’. (Pg 63 The Puzzle of Ethics Peter Vardy)

Whereas if you were to believe in the deontological theory, than the ethics behind the decision would be if you were against murder and torture, and you felt, it was immoral to let a person be tortured than you would not allow this action to happen. A deontological believer would stand by their morals. (This would have branched from Socrates theory.)
Aristotle's approach would have been a consequentialist ethical approach ; the consequences of murdering one person to save another could have rippling effects on the person's mental state in the future . Basically every action good or bad can have repercussions.

Morality is the difference between right and wrong. Ethics is what you do with those beliefs. For example: if a person was to believe abortion was wrong; but was going through I.V.F treatment, and was told the fetus had numerous problems and would be born severely disabled. If that person was given a choice to abort the fetus , and did so, that would be going against ethical believes.
A deontological theory would be to stick by your morals regarding the decision of abortion. However if you had no views regarding abortion and faced with the same scenario, you could apply the kantian theory; by believing to terminate the pregnancy would be the right thing, as the child would suffer more being born and living severely disabled.
Ethics also play a huge role in religion too. Religious debates regarding religion can include: abortion (seen as murder) euthanasia ( assisted suicide) and also genetic engineering ( people believe gods hand plays the part in fatality and that nature should not be messed with).

An example of deontological ethics that may arise regarding religion and ethics is: A nurse who believes against abortion and thinks it is ethically wrong is assigned to a patient who has had a termination and needs care. Does the nurse treat and care for the patient ?, and go against her beliefs. Or as she has decided on a career in caring, does the nurse continue to care for the patient?. As nursing was her choice this could be seen as; consequentialism ethics; if she neglects her patient and refuses care than her patient could be a grave risk and also the nurses could lose her job. She would need to make an ethical decision based on the most positive outcome.

Both decisions would involve a great deal of emotivism and will affect the decision in hand.
There would be no right or wrong decision regarding the question in hand.

Joseph Fletcher adapted a different idea to the approach on ethics “situation ethics” (In 1966 Joseph Fletcher published his first book ;Situation ethics sms press) Fletcher's views on situation ethic where there is ‘’no moral rules or ‘rights’ each person is unique and every situation deserves a unique solution’’. Fletcher claims there are ‘’Three approaches to ethics; The legality (based on law) The antinomian (lawless) and The situation approach’’. Fletcher believed that ‘’the only law was ‘agape’.
If the patient was having an abortion due to the fact she could had found out she had a type of cancer, and in order to have chemotherapy she would need to terminate the pregnancy, without the abortion the patient could not receive chemotherapy and die; then the nurse could justify her actions. Whereas the patient was having an abortion just so she wouldn't get ‘’fat’’ than the nurse would indeed be going against her true believes.
Fletcher believed that ethics also rest on ‘’six propositions and four working principles;Pragmatism; the course of action must be practical and work. (outcome judged by love) Relativism; always relative to the situation or to the point. (act lovingly) Positivism; a person may choose to freely believe in agape (Faith) Personalism ( put others first)’’
Propositions are that of love and agape (loving others and not expecting love in return ).
Fletcher can be seen to say ‘’people can make decisions based on themselves that can be seen as selfish’’. (pg 131 Situation ethics-Paul Grosch) Fletchers portrayal of situation ethics also highlights ethics within the church. For example: the catholic church is against abortion , so under the eyes of the catholic church if a patient was to have an ectopic pregnancy and had to abort the child in order to save her life , than this would be an ‘’situational’’ approach. As the catholic church ‘’out of love’’ would be able to justify the abortion in order to save a life.

As humans we often wonder why people do “what they do” are they motivated by ethics morals and beliefs. The virtues ( a normative theory- a person's character not their actions) develop either ethical or moral believes these are; Homeric Virtues ( how to think and act ), Athenian virtues (living a good and moral life cannot get any better) and Medieval virtues ( courage, justice, temperance and wisdom). People sometimes think they are acting ethically and “doing the right thing” become morally wrong for example: why is it acceptable to “put down” a terminally ill animal, and not do the same with a pain stricken terminally ill “vegetable state “ human ?.
Doing good or the right thing does not automatically make you ethical .

A common modern debate regarding ethics is generated around genetic engineering.
Genetic engineering is a scientific process enabling cells carefully being manipulated and DNA gathered and then put into another cell. Taking characteristics from one gene and transferring them into an organism artificially. 2(This cannot be done in natural reproduction).
There are three types of genetic engineering: somatic cell genetic engineering(involves making genetic changes to particular cells) An example would be the removal of cancerous cells and replacing with healthy cells for instance ‘bone marrow’ transplants. Germ-line therapy ( detection of genetic disease can be detected) An example would be if a pregnant woman was told her child had down-syndrome, she could be given the choice of abortion, or to carry on with the pregnancy.
Lastly enhancement genetic engineering ( manipulation of cells , ‘D.N.A, and genes to determine a child's hair colour, eyes, sex etc) An example would be a mother may want the child to have more of her appearance than the fathers.

Genetic engineering has famously made history “In 1996 a new phase of genetic engineering was revolutionized this would be cloning. When Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the (Roslin­ Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland), successfully cloned a sheep named Dolly. Dolly was the first cloned mammal. (Ian Wilmut 5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003)”
3“Wilmut and his colleagues transplanted a nucleus from a mammary gland cell of a Finn Dorset sheep into the enucleated egg of a Scottish blackface ewe.”
This was then shown to be successful genetic engineering and that dolly had become the first cloned sheep. Wilmut (5 july 1996-14 february 2003) said “ It took 276 attempts until the experiment was successful” . The success of “dolly” has implanted the seeds in our heads that we are able to respectfully clone ourselves and have a child.

Also “In 1978 the world was astounded by the breakthrough of a new lease of genetic engineering which would be I.V.F 4( “In vitro fertilization is the process by which eggs are removed from your ovaries and mixed with sperm in a laboratory culture dish. Fertilisation takes place in this dish, "in vitro", which means "in glass". ) 5“Dr Patrick Steptoe led to the birth in July 1978 of ­Louise Brown, the world’s first ‘test tube baby”.
The breakthrough in I.V.F would mean that more couples who were unable to conceive naturally would now be given a chance”.

I.V.F or in vitro fertilization is a genetic engineering process that an egg is removed and fertilized out of the womb with a sperm; in which becomes an embryo and inserted back into the womb to be grown.
The I.V.F process can be long and draining; firstly the women would need to inject herself with a hormone to increase the egg amounts, the eggs are than removed and than sperm is used to fertilize the eggs to become embryos; sometimes multiple embryos are inserted back into the womb. Not all cases are successful, and not always are all eggs/embryos used.

The subject regarding ethics and genetic engineering; especially the I.V.F process have thrown many controversial debates ; for example: I.V.F can be preserved; as “we can have what ever we want, whenever we want it”. Many people believe a child is a gift and not everyone has the right to become a parent.
Many debates regarding the use of genetic engineering and its ethics have continued to cause controversy. Thousands of babies have now been born through I.V.F since 1978, and with the pioneering advances scientists can now manipulate the D.N.A and genes, and any traces of genetic disease can be detected. The disorders can than be effectively eliminated.
If a couple had had a previous child with a genetic disorder they would now be able to prevent their future off-spring from the disorder.
Genetic engineering with I.F.C can be seen as manufacturing your children; some say what is the ethical difference between rectifying a disorder after a baby is born, and rectifying some disorder by manipulating genes before the baby is born?. many people see that a embryo is not yet a baby, only when a baby is born is it a viable life.

I.V.F has also brought controversy to the way embryos are discarded. The daily telegraph reported that ‘1.7 million human embryos had been created for I.V.F than thrown away’.(Thursday 6th March 2014- The daily telegraph-Andrew Hugh )
Ethically the discarding of unwanted eggs can be seen as a waste of life.

The process of the disregarding of embryos can be portrayed as if a’’ human life’’ is no good, or not needed. So we can just throw it away. No one has the right to own a child and with parents agreeing for their “spare” embryos to be used in research can be seen as an invasion of human life.

Many debates around the topic of I.V.F and abortion is, when does life actually begin, is it from conception, when there is an established Embryo or when the fetus is viable. Some people believe a ‘’human ‘’ is not a person until it is born and takes its first breath. The catholic church believes that both a sperm ,and an egg have a soul and when they become fertilized there souls join; this is called ‘dualist’ and the soul becomes a life.
If an embryo was used for scientific experiments, and that embryo was successfully reared into a ‘ human’ or ‘person’ who would have the rights to the child, would it be the professor , the donor, or would the child be kept continuously as a science experiment.
Would that child have any rights itself? . Would the child have a choice in life?.

Within 8 weeks of pregnancy already the fetus resembles a human ; arms, a head and legs developing. By twenty weeks the fetus is near on formed and even the sex can be determined. In the U.K it is still legal to abort a pregnancy up until 24 weeks. The baby would have expressed movements inside the womb and a heart beat would be strong . If the fetus was aborted at this stage it would be born alive - and left to die. This is why such controversy surrounds abortion.

This has caused more controversial debate regarding I.V.F. is it right and acceptable to offer couples the chance to full fill their wish for a child; or do they have a justified right to one ? . Also when the child grows up and is told about their ‘start to life’ and find out that its I.Q could have been higher or inherited blue eyes, and blonde hair, will that child resent its parents and maybe see them as selfish ? . Or do the parents ‘own’ the right to determine what the child inherited. Can it be deemed fair that only they welfare can prevent their child having a genetic disease?, whilst the less fortunate have to life in hope that their child is has not inherited a 'bad' gene.
This leads back to the topic ‘who has the right to determine the characteristics of an embryo ’ and are we exploiting human life. Is the reason behind the decisions based ethically.

Increased genetic engineering regarding I.V.F may lead to a risk of a human being regarded as 'only' his or her genes. The potential 'individual' of a human may be at risk.
Parents may also lose track on the importance in being a human , no amount of genetic engineering can determine this trait.
"In 1976 Richard Dawkins wrote ''The Selfish Gene'' many humans characteristics were linked to certain genes linking the way people behaved for example they could inherit; depression. homosexuality, alcoholism, intelligence. In reducing human genes this could be a conflict of human rights. ''

There are many different reasons for people wanting I.V.F these can include:
Woman's fallopian tubes can be missing or blocked, Endometriosis ( can affect the reproductive system ), A mans low sperm count, unexplained infertility, a couple wants to test for inherited disorders, another reason for I.V.F is that of a surrogate mother 6(a woman who bears a child on behalf of another person; be it a gay couple or a single person, either from her own egg fertilized by the other parties partner, or from the implantation in her womb of a fertilized egg from the other woman).

The arguments that surround the issues and ethics around I.V.F can be portrayed at where do we stop ? can I.V.F be justified to same sex couples or single people who would like a child even without a partner.
Utilitarianism ethics state that maximum welfare of humans is paramount and making people safe and happy is the ‘right’ thing to do. Whereas the kantian theory suggests to do the right things for the right reasons and not using others to gain personal happiness. Both ethics can be quite contractual . If a couple who wanted to undergo I.V.F but did not believe in murder or abortion but agreed to donate their eggs for scientific use- this could be deemed as unethical .
With the more chance of having ‘multiple births’ both mother and child can be put at risk. Statistically most multiple births are normally induced or premature; putting the child at risks from defects; also the mother is at risk from needing surgery and medical aftercare. Mothers can also be more sceptical to post natal depression.

I.V.F has helped thousands of people have a child that through natural breeding would not be possible.
It has brought many discussions whether I.V.F is ethical or moral.
Is it ok to choose; your childs hair colour, eyes, gender, build or intelligence?. Is it ok to have two dads and not a mother or father ?, can we justify ruling out genetic diseases ?
Although I.V.F have undoubtedly given so many the people the opportunity or parenthood a good question would be “how will the child feel “?.
When that child grows up and learns that it was genetically modified to not have their fathers “red” hair colour, or that she inherited her mothers “intelligence”, what rights actually do the parents have over this decision making . Would the child thank the parents for making them ‘special’ or resent them for being ‘different’.

Genetic engineering fascinating as it; can be seen as a “double edged sword “ on one side genetic engineering is changing peoples lives for better, be it: IVF, surrogacy, GE crops and even using animals in order to experiment to save human life.
Dr Ray Bohlin (R. Bohlin 2000) expressed his knowledge on genetic engineering to detect genetic illness . Bohlins take on the matter was that 9“One is simply to attempt to alleviate the symptoms of a genetic disease. This entails gene therapy, attempting to transfer the normal gene into only those tissues most affected by the disease’’.

On the other side of the sword “genetic engineering can be seen as “immoral” and “unethical” . Is it right to interfere with nature, or what gives us the right to determine what genes to give someone in order to make them “taller” or more “intelligent “.
Could we be making our world more overpopulated ?. Do we mess with what is nature and meant to be or do we disturb it and face consequences? . The kantian ethical theory suggests that we shouldn't use over people or objects to gain self satisfaction. This could be seen as; using an unnatural procedure and going against human rights to the; embryo in order to satisfy the right to have a child could be seen as unethical.

Professor Stephen Hawking even though he is not a geneticist, has commented often and publicly on the future of genetic engineering. One possibility he suggests is that 9 “ once an intelligent life form reaches the stage we're at now, it proceeds to destroy itself, redesigning the race to minimize our aggressive nature and give us a better chance at long-term survival. Humans will change their genetic makeup to give them more intelligence and better memory," (S.Hawkins Fall 1999)

Genetic engineering comes at a price . IVF specifically is a costly treatment . I.V.F treatment is offered once for “free”on the N.H.S, but only if you fall within the strict criteria which is: 10 ‘’“the woman is aged between 23 and 39 at the time of treatment, and one or both of you has been diagnosed with a fertility problem (such as having no sperm or both fallopian tubes blocked), or you’ve been infertile for at least two years.”(NHS.Co.uk)
Is genetic engineering really about helping others and “bettering” our lives or is it just another way of gaining a better economy ? . Some people believe children are a gift not an entitlement . Are ethics even fitted into the genetic engineering equation ? We could debate why is abortion legal and given freely on the NHS whereas IVF is only offered to selected couples once .

Total word count 3200

Bibliography.

Website Referencing;
The daily telegraph
The daily Telegraph -Andrew Hugh 4th March 2014. ( 4th March 2014) ww.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9772233/1.7-million-human-embryos-created-for-IVF-thrown-away.html Well being . com http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/in-vitro-fertilization-for-infertility(IVF)(4th march 2014) - IVF and reproduction.
How science works- http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/cloning3.htm ( dolly the sheep )(3rd March 14)
Blogs- Hindu times ( surrogacy) March 4th 14) http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/expat-on-the-edge/2009/12/09/is-commercial-surrogacy-in-india-ethical/ (surrogacy)
Science forum- genetic engineering (march 5th 14) http://www.srforum.org/articles/genetic-engineering-foe-or-friend/ BBc.co.uk - ethics and animal testing.(march 4th 2014) http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/biotechnology_1.shtml http://www.greens.org/s-r/20/20-01.html(stephen Hawkins) March 4th 2014 Professer interveiw . http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/humgeneng.html ( March 6th 2014) http://www.methodist.org.uk/who-we-are/views-of-the-church/genetic-engineering( march 6th methodists church)

Authors and Books;
The puzzle of Ethics- Peter Vardy and Paul Grosch. published 1994 revised 1999
Genetic Engineering- William H. Sofer 1991 ( 7th March 2014)

PUBLISHERS
Peter Vardy (8th March 2014)
Elizabeth H Ormandy (May 2011)
Ian Willmout (1996)
Dr Patrick Steptoe (1978)
Dr Ray Boulin (200)
Hindustin times (2002)
Professor Stephen Hawkins(1999)