Gene Editing, Animal Disenhancement and Ethical Debates: A Conundrum for Business Ethics?
N Thomas, A Langridge
Animals and Business Ethics
Book Chapter
Springer. 25 April 2022
The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97142-7_10
Abstract
Despite the potential of genetic disenhancement to create livestock incapable of pain and thus reduce animal suffering in industrial farming, ethical theorists have rejected disenhancement as intuitively unethical or as part of a broader dismissal of industrial farming. Although criticisms of industrial farming may be valid, the suffering of animals involved still needs to be addressed, and business ethics is specially placed to do so. In this chapter, a brief overview of the related ethical issues of industrial farming and disenhancement are outlined, and practical steps businesses should make to address animal suffering are provided. Explicit Corporate Social Responsibility policies that reflect the interest of animals, workers and consumers as stakeholders should be put in place, which would provide a mechanism to make businesses accountable for genetic modification and animal welfare more generally.