Is genetic engineering inherently wrong, irrespective of its application or its consequences?
Some Christians may consider that to change a single gene in an animal would be attempting to change God's best design, upsetting the wisdom inherent in the natural order by humans who did not know the full extent of the unprecedented changes they were making. Some would say we should not genetically engineer animals in any way we would not do in humans. The SRT report to the 1999 Assembly on genetically modified food and crops established grounds that manipulating genes and transferring them amongst widely varying species did not in itself violate a fundamental limit in the nature of things. The same would apply to animals, but, as with GM crops, there are important caveats. The nature of an animal, like plants and humans, is more than the mere sum of its genes but lies in the wider essence of the creature as a whole. Animals are also in constant genetic variation. To change one or two genes is not like changing a fixed blueprint, which would irretrievably violate the animal, unless the result brought about a severe impairment or suffering to the animal. We must therefore ask whether a particular genetic change poses special problems in relation to the nature of the animal, and also what regard we give to different types of animals, for example, primates, pigs, mice, frogs and midges.
A "No, unless" approach might allow uses where the prime benefit was to the animal, such as increased disease resistance, or in cases where a major human benefit could be achieved with minimal interference in the animal. It would be more critical about increased growth rate in animal production, whether the level or nature of intervention was permissible, and what motives were driving it. It would ask if there were better ways to the same end without manipulating the animals.
