Selective Breeding Ethics

The Ethics behind selective breeding

Selective breeding, or artificial selection, is a process whereby evolution is overridden so that only organisms with required traits are selected by humans to reproduce over many generations; often resulting in highly productive crops or farm animals, or desirable pet breeds (see figure 1). As evolution, or natural selection, most commonly only allows the fittest, strongest and healthiest to survive, by-passing this progression can risk adverse organism development and survival, and the possibility of health concerns in animals due to a lack of genetic diversity. As a result there are ongoing ethical debates as to whether humans have the right to deliberately breed animals with the knowledge that they
Sadly, while the artificial selection of these dogs has resulting in highly effective hunters (or equivalent) they commonly have a shorter life expectancy than their non-pedigree counterparts and, as with the farmed animals, have anatomical abnormalities that result arthritis, back and joint problems, and breathing difficulties, amongst others. For example, Zhang et al. (2009) demonstrated that hip dysplasia in a variety of dog breeds is a direct result of inbreeding within their pedigree
Maize, rice, wheat, corn, tomatoes, potatoes and beans are all examples of selectively bred crops that make up the vast majority of the world’s food. One striking example of artificially selected vegetables is that of Brassica oleracea (see figure 2) which is the ancestor of cabbage, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, kale, broccoli and cauliflower, amongst others (Sauer, 1993). Just as the process for producing these crop plants is the same as in animals, so developmental defects are also present. For instance, some cultivars of wheat plant were made to grow so tall that they began to blow over in heavy winds, thereby negating any yield increase the selection may have brought