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From Thought to Laboratory Experiment? Genetic Pain Disenhancement in the Age of Genome Editing: An Attempt to Enhance the Debate
Camenzind, Samuel
2025
Abstract
With the advent of genome editing technologies, genetic pain disenhancement (GPD) – the bi-otechnological reduction or elimination of the sensation of pain in animals as an animal welfare measure – has gained new momentum. Various scientists and philosophers assume that GPD animals can and should soon be used in straining animal experiments or intensive livestock breeding. However, for the current GPD debate to progress from thought experiment to a real-istic assessment of GPD, it is necessary to overcome numerous shortcomings and research gaps. This article addresses three research gaps of the current GPD debate and aims to open up new research horizons. First, the central subject of the discussion – (animal) pain – is un-derdetermined. In many articles on GPD, neither a minimal definition of pain is articulated nor are current research findings and questions of philosophy of pain and neurobiology con-sidered. Second, at present no or hardly any empirical data on animal experiments are includ-ed in the ethical analysis. For example, there is a lack of data on the number of GPD test ani-mals currently used, the degree of strains and the state of health of these animals. The inclusion of such data is necessary because the GPD project assumes that all sentient animals have a moral status, including the animals used to develop a final GPD model. Third, the socio-politicaldimension has not yet been sufficiently considered. Whether the population would buy food products from genetically modified, pain-free animals and what the consequences of GPD would be for the field of animal research remain open questions.
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Samuel Camenzind, "From Thought to Laboratory Experiment? Genetic Pain Disenhancement in the Age of Genome Editing: An Attempt to Enhance the Debate" in: "Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics (2025) XXVII/2", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2025, pp. 25-42
Languages
en
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