So, are GloFish ethical?
To determine if GloFish are ethical or not, you must first determine what it means to be ethical. It may be helpful to think about: What are ethics to you? Where did you get your idea of ethics from? How might your definition of ethics vary from someone else's? These are not easy questions to answer, but there are many models that you can use to help further determine your own view on the ethics of GloFish.
Explained below are a few examples of ethical frameworks that may help you to think deeper about the ethics of GloFish.
Explained below are a few examples of ethical frameworks that may help you to think deeper about the ethics of GloFish.
Kant's Categorical ImperativeImmanuel Kant, an important German philosopher, is well known for his idea of the Categorical Imperative. The Categorical Imperative can be summed up as always act so that you treat humanity as an end, and never merely as a means.
An "end" in this case, can be seen as the final destination, while a "means" can be seen as the road trip to the destination. By Kant's perspective, you should treat the road trip with just as much respect and excitement as you would your destination. This concept of ends versus means can be applied to GloFish. For example:
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Peak MoralityJeremy Betham was an other important philosopher who developed the concept of utilitarianism, which is the theory that the most moral action is one that maximizes utility (otherwise known as pleasure.) Under the guide of utilitarianism, you should always do what will maximize utility for the most beings. This will equate to peak morality.
On the other hand, Aristotle had his own view of peak morality. Aristotle's "Doctrine of the Mean" states that virtue (or peak morality) is the state between extremes of excess and deficiency. By this model, one who wants to be ethical should seek to live a life of "sufficiency." Wait - what?! Two important ethical theories that completely contradict each other? How does that work? Ethics is not black or white. In fact, many ethical theories completely disagree with each other. That is why it is up to you to use your critical thinking skills and figure out what you, personally, believe. Should we seek maximum utility or sufficiency? How do GloFish play into that?Are GloFish above "sufficient" or are GloFish a way to maximize utility? |
Haraway's Ethic of CareAnother lens to examine ethicality through is Donna Haraway's Ethic of Care. The Ethic of Care is discussed in Haraway's article "Sharing Suffering: Instrumental Relations between Laboratory Animals and their People." In the article, Haraway proposes that we must adopt an attitude of caring and responsibility for our actions towards animals.
For example, when using dogs for hemophilia research, we must take action to reduce the suffering of the dogs by considering what we can do to make arrangements to minimize the number of dogs needed and allow the dogs to live as full of lives as possible. The concept of an Ethic of Care can also be applied to GloFish. For Example:
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