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Posted by on Jan 18, 2013 in Bioethics, Debate, In the news | 2 comments

Attack of the frankenfish?

I expect that most of my readers will have seen this petition asking you to oppose the approval of a genetically-engineered salmon for consumption in the United States.

Sign it by all means, if you so wish, but I most certainly will not. Nothing in the blurb convinces me that there is any real environmental danger from this approval, or that I am somehow in a better position to make that judgment than the US Food and Drug Administration. Instead, I see a lot of emotional rhetoric, with such words as “frankenfish”, in place of any plausible claims of fact that might persuade me. The whole thing seems like just another irrationalist appeal to an inviolable natural realm.

Maybe there’s a legitimate scientific case against the genetically modified salmon, and maybe not. But if this is the best that opponents can come up with, I have to suspect not. If any readers have better information, please share it. As always, I am open to argument and evidence. Right now, though, this campaign looks awfully like bioluddite bullshit to me.