Animal welfare by genome editing? Animal ethical perspectives on genome editing in farm animals

2018年上半年，德国的商业屠宰场屠宰了2840万头猪和170万头牛。更不用说羔羊、绵羊和山羊，尤其是家禽。在被屠宰之前，这些动物大多过着痛苦的生活。今天生产肉、奶和蛋的条件导致数以百万计的牲畜系统性地生病，并伴随着严重的痛苦和折磨。假设完全放弃使用和消费牲畜的要求（这是由不少动物伦理学家提出的）至少在中期不会盛行，那么一个紧迫的问题就出现了，一个对动物更友好的畜牧业实践会是什么样子。在这种情况下，动物增强或动物退化的技术选择已经讨论了几年，这可能适合于将牲畜养殖对受影响动物的负面影响降到最低，或者至少部分地完全避免这些负面影响。因此，家畜的技术“改良”不仅可以满足人类对更大产品数量和优化产品质量的兴趣，还可以保护动物免受痛苦、负担和损害。对于新的基因组编辑技术来说尤其如此，它可以为改善养殖动物的福利做出潜在的重大贡献。在此背景下，本研究项目旨在识别和批判性评估在动物育种中使用各种基因组编辑方法的动物福利相关优势，同时考虑到相关的动物伦理论点和立场。在这种背景下，“福利保护原则”（Rollin）将受到批判性的讨论，另一种“务实”的建议将得到发展和辩护，有关在牲畜育种中应用各种基因组编辑方法的“非同一性问题”将得到审查。

In the first half of 2018, 28.4 million pigs and 1.7 million cattle were slaughtered on commercial slaughterhouses in Germany. Not to mention lambs, sheep and goats as well as above all poultry. Most of these animals had a painful life before slaughter. The conditions under which meat, milk and eggs are produced today cause millions of livestock to systematically become ill and are associated with grave pain and suffering. Assuming that the demand for a complete renunciation of the use and consumption of livestock, which is raised by not a few animal ethicists, at least in the medium term will not prevail, the pressing question arises, how a more animal-friendly practice of livestock husbandry can look like.In this context, technical options for Animal Enhancement or Animal Disenhancement have been discussed for some years, which could be suitable for minimizing the negative consequences of livestock farming for the affected animals or - at least in part - completely avoiding them. The technical "improvement" of livestock thus could not only satisfy the human interest in larger product quantities and optimized product qualities, but also protect animals from suffering, burdens and impairments. This is especially true for the new genome editing techniques, which can make a - potentially significant - contribution to improving the welfare of farmed animals.Against this background, this research project aims to identify and critically assess animal welfare-relevant advantages of using the various methods of genome editing in animal breeding, taking into account relevant animal ethical arguments and positions. In this context, the "principle of conservation of welfare" (Rollin) will be subjected to a critical discussion, an alternative, "pragmatic" proposal will be developed and defended and the "problem of non-identity" with regard to the application of the various methods of genome editing in livestock breeding will be examined.