Journal article
Are current EU policies on GMOs justified?
University of Copenhagen1
Innovation, Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark2
Ethics of Technology, Innovation, Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark3
Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark4
The European Court of Justice’s recent ruling that the new techniques for crop development are to be considered as genetically modified organisms under the European Union’s regulations exacerbates the need for a critical evaluation of those regulations. The paper analyzes the regulation from the perspective of moral and political philosophy.
It considers whether influential arguments for restrictions of genetically modified organisms provide cogent justifications for the policies that are in place, in particular a pre-release authorization requirement, mandatory labelling, and de facto bans (in the form of withholding or opting out of authorizations).
It is argued that arguments pertaining to risk can justify some form of pre-release authorization scheme, although not necessarily the current one, but that neither de facto bans nor mandatory labelling can be justified by reference to common arguments concerning naturalness, agricultural policy (in particular the promotion of organic farming), socio-economic effects, or consumers’ right to choose.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | Springer International Publishing |
Year: | 2019 |
Pages: | 267-286 |
Journal subtitle: | Associated With the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (istt) |
ISSN: | 15739368 and 09628819 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1007/s11248-019-00120-x |
ORCIDs: | 0000-0001-7187-4520 , 0000-0001-7176-6976 and Andersen, Martin Marchman |
Animal Genetics and Genomics Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology Biomedical and Life Sciences Consumer Product Safety Crops, Agricultural European Union Food, Genetically Modified Genetic Engineering Humans Legislation, Food Life Sciences Molecular Medicine Plant Genetics and Genomics Plants, Genetically Modified Risk Assessment Safety Management Transgenics