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from Dr Donald Bruce
Director of the Society Religion & Technology Project, Church of Scotland
The Society Religion and Technology Project welcomes the announcement (6 December 2000) by the Roslin Institute to do research into producing human antibodies in the eggs of genetically modified chickens. In 1997, the Church of Scotland General Assembly expressed its approval of the production of therapeutic proteins in sheep's milk by adding human genes to the sheep. This further research in chickens is ethically of a similar type. SRT Director Dr Donald Bruce says, "We support the general aim of Roslin's research into antibody production using chicken eggs. Care must be taken, however, that it does not pose undue animal welfare problems, and that human safety implications are fully addressed."
The fact that cloning technology is involved need not pose a major ethical objection in this case, provided that welfare problems do not result. In the same 1997 General Assembly the Kirk has expressed its concerns at the possible use of cloning merely to copy animals genetically, but this present proposal is to use the nuclear transfer cloning method to provide a way to target the genetic changes much better. If successful, this could use less animals than might otherwise be the case, and provide a better way to produce the antibodies. Many cases of animal cloning have, however, produced welfare problems in sheep and cattle. The Farm Animal Welfare Council of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1998 recommended a moratorium on the commercial use of animal cloning while welfare issues were resolved. [See our SRT Comment]. Chickens are of course very different animals, but with this general background, it will be of the utmost importance to study the welfare implications as this research develops.
In international collaborations, it is also important that UK standards are upheld in the animal welfare and health regulations, and in the ethical appraisal of how the technology might eventually be applied, in finding the right balance of human benefit and animal use.
See also our work on GM Animals
Contact : Dr Donald Bruce, SRT Project tel. 0131-240 2250, Fax 0131-240 2239,
srtp@srtp.org.uk http://www.srtp/org.uk
Or the Church of Scotland Press Office 0131- 240 2243
Dr Bruce is Director of the Church of Scotland Society Religion and Technology Project, assessing ethical issues in technology for Scotland's national church. He is a leading authority on the ethics of cloning and genetic engineering in non-human species, and is co-author of "Engineering Genesis" now a standard text on the subject. The SRT Project has for several years been at the forefront of the ethical debates on cloning and on the use of genetic engineering in animals for agricultural and medical use.
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Page created on 6 December 2000
