Harvard Journal of Law & Technology Volume 10, Number3 Summer 1997 IMPROVING NATURE?: THE SCIENCE AND ETHICS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING By Michael Reiss I & Roger Straughan. 2 New York, N. Y.: Cambridge University Press. 1996. Pp. 288. $24.95 (hard). Improving Nature? is guided by a simple set of premises --that the science of genetic engineering is essential to discussing its ethics and, moreover, that a coherent set of ethical principles cannot be developed solely from scientific comprehension. This stance is sensible, if not self- evident, in the examination of any new technology. 3 The authors, Michael Reiss, a biologist at Cambridge University, and Roger Straughan, a moral philosopher at the University of Reading, would seem an apropos pair to tackle genetic engineering 4 from this integrdted science and ethics approach. But while each contributes heartilyto introducing the science of genetic engineering and philosophical ethics as separate topics, their resulting application of this hybrid method is generally too cursor~ to be useful. I. INTRODUCING THE SCIENCE AND ETHICS The first forty pages of Improving Nature? present an admirable introduction to the history and science of genetic engineering, accessible to anyone passingly familiar with biology. The authors highlight the unique features and possibilities of genetic engineering in order to lay a suitable foundation for discussing its novel ethical consequences. Although many public relations-types, scientists, and government I, Michael Reiss holds a Ph.D. in biology from Cambridge University and is now a Senior Lecturer in Biology at Homerton College, Cambridge. His current research interests are science education and bioothics. He is also a priest in the Church of England. 2. Roger Slraughan is a moral philosopher and Reader in Education at the University of Reading, He has also acted as ethical advisor to the European Union. 3. For example, in analyzing how to govern the deployment of a nuclear bomb, a society would not wish to rely just on the scientists who built it. On the0ther hand, the ultimate decision-maker~ would surely go awry without a suitable technical understanding of how the device works and what exactly it does. 4. Many writers employ the term "rec?mbinant DNA technology" when discussing issues of genetic engineering, possibly asa" more "marketable" terra for this type of biotechnology. However, the authors recognize that recombinant DNA technology is technically a subset of genetic engineering, which is mugldy defined as "any change to the genetic make-up of an organism resulting from the direct insertion of genetic material either from another organism or constructed in the laboratory" (p.2 n.l).708 Harvard Journal of Law & Technology [Vol. 10 agencies have stated that genetic engineering is essentially an amplifica- tion of more traditional forms of biotechnology, such as breeding, 5 the authors begin the introduction by noting several key differences. Genetic engineering may involve all manner of species, whereas those utilized in traditional cross-breeding are typically closely related. 6 The time scale for observing significant effects in genetic engineering processes is several weeks compared to several or many years under traditional techniques. In addition, genetic engineering is "far more ambitious," and may be applied not only to food and drink, but also to pollution control, drug production, plants and aiaimals that produce human compounds, such as insulin, and sewage control (p. 5). The authors follow with a detailed introduction to genetics and the nature of the DNA helix as a code, and finally discuss the basic principles of genetic engineering (pp. 11-41). Considering that many ethical discussions of biotechnology rarely refer to the basic science involved, the lucid presentation in Improving Nature? sets it apart from the many works which jump into the thick of bioethics from the start, often with an obvious agenda, as well as those works that, unfortunately, fail to delve into the science at all. 7 In the next major section, the authors present an introduction to morals, ethics, and theology that covers approximately the same number of pages as the scientific introduction but is generally less informative and less relevant (pp. 43-89). For example, discussion of the philosophi- cal distinction between ethics and morals is not necessary for an introductory work. On the other hand, some important ethical consider- ations are explicated, such as the difference between intrinsic (inherent) wrongs and extrinsic (consequential) wrongs (p. 49). The discussion 5. See, e.g., Gene Cuisine Scientists/ire Working Hard On Specially Engineered Food, ST. LOUlS DISPATCH, May 27, 1992, at IC ("FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler said agricultural scientists have used methods of crossbreeding and genetic manipulation for centuries to produce new foods, like hybrid corn or tangelos. Genetic engineering techniques, he said, are a more precise way of doing the same thing."); Sally Lehrman, Rifkin Enlists San Francisco Chefs in National Biotech Food Fight, BIOTECH. NEWSWA'rCH, Sept. 21, 1992. available in Westlaw, TECI'~WS File ("Dr. Christine Bruh, food marketing specialist at the University of California, Davis, said that genetic engineering is the sa~ne as the traditional plant breeding that has n~-ulted in crops like hybrid ~[)ro.~'). 6. A controversial example of cross-species engineering involves the creation of frost- resistant properties in tomatoes by the insertion of appropriate genes found infish. See Molly O'Neill, Geneticists' Latest Discovery: Public Fear of'Frankenfood; N.Y. TIMES, June 28, 1992, atAl. 7. For other works with useful scientific introductions to genetic engineering, see Ewzo Russo & DAVID COVE, G~-nc ENGn,~aEmNG: DREAMS ~'D NIG~ (1995); SUSAN At~u~, THE THREAD OF Ln~: THE STORY OF GENES AND Gl~'nc ENGr~n~O (1996); GJ.V. NOSS~J~, RESHAPING LIFE: KEY ISSUES IN GENETIC ENGn~EmNG (2d ed. 1989).No. 3] Improving Nature? 709 surrounding the possible intrinsic problems of genetic engineering drives to the heart of such oft-repeated debates as the natural versus non- natural, ecological bolism versus materialistic reductionism, and the religious versus secular. Reiss and Straughan examine the deeper arguments behind general theological sentiments (pp. 70-89),