Brave new birds: the use of 'animal integrity'in animal ethics

B Bovenkerk, FWA Brom… - Hastings Center …, 2002 - Wiley Online Library
B Bovenkerk, FWA Brom, BJ Van Den Bergh
Hastings Center Report, 2002Wiley Online Library
Suppose “chicken” eggs could be produced by quasi‐chickens—genetically engineered
humps of living chicken‐flesh that do nothing but lay eggs. Would there be anything amiss
with that? Animal ethicists invoke the notion of animal integrity in order to give intellectual
content to the intuition that there would be. On inspection,'integrity'isn't everything its
proponents want it to be. Yet there's enough in it to make reasoned argument possible.
Suppose “chicken” eggs could be produced by quasi‐chickens—genetically engineered humps of living chicken‐flesh that do nothing but lay eggs. Would there be anything amiss with that? Animal ethicists invoke the notion of animal integrity in order to give intellectual content to the intuition that there would be. On inspection, ‘integrity’ isn't everything its proponents want it to be. Yet there's enough in it to make reasoned argument possible.
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