Staying good while playing God – Looking after animal welfare when applying biotechnology

Animal breeding was, until the beginning of the twentieth century, a relatively uncontrolled activity based mainly on the animal’s physical appearance. The early animal breeders did not really have the knowledge and tools to predict and control what they were doing. This changed in the first half of the twentieth century, when Mendelian genetics was applied in farm animal breeding. Later, the second half of the twentieth century saw the development of new forms of animal biotechnology such as the freezing of semen, embryo transfer, in vitro fertilization, gene transfer and cloning – all of which allow scientists and breeders even greater control over future animals. With greater control comes greater responsibility and, in modern democratic societies at any rate, a higher degree of accountability. Certainly the new technologies prompt a range of ethical questions concerning animal welfare, biodiversity and human interference with nature. In this paper focus will be on the effects of breeding and other forms of biotechnology on animal welfare. In the first section it will be described how modern breeding and biotechnology has developed. In the second section consequences for animal welfare will be presented and discussed. Finally in the las