New science raises ethical questions

Spider-goats may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but Freckles, Utah’s renowned spider-goat is very real.
No, she does not have eight legs or multiple eyes. Unless someone told you, you may never know Freckles and her siblings, Pudding and Sweetie, were genetically modified to produce spider silk. The silk is created by adding a protein to the goats’ cells, which is then extracted from their milk.
While the goats are unharmed and seem to function normally, there are potential negative consequences that go hand in hand with the positives.
The ability to make these changes successfully means that scientists could be closer to utilizing gene splicing technology for curing cancer, gene therapy and stem cell research. However, it raises many ethical questions.
Randy Lewis, a professor of genetics at Utah State University, created Freckles and her siblings. In an interview with The Guardian, Lewis said he has advanced farming purely to produce things that people want. This is where the conflict begins.
Scientific advancement aside, why should animals be altered simply to produce products people desire? While obtaining silk from actual spiders is difficult, there should be alternative methods of creating silk that do not involve altering the genes of a goat. Although the goats do not appear to be harmed, the issue lies within the principle.
As the most intellectually sophisticated animal, humans have power over other creatures on Earth. But using this power to benefit ourselves is something that should be constantly questioned. It is already becoming acceptable to use hormones on animals to increase productivity and size, as well as modifying crops to our advantage. Perhaps if the alterations were in some way beneficial to the goats it would be less of an ethical concern, but again humans are the sole benefactor.
It doesn’t matter how impressive and futuristic a spider-goat sounds. They could open a floodgate of animal alterations even more unimaginable than a goat that produces silk.