Two Different Approaches to Gene Technology in Animals

Gene technology on animals has increased enormously in Sweden during the 1990s. Most of it has to do with transgenic laboratory animals. Before this increase began, there was an official investigation of potential ethical problems of animal biotechnology, in which it was said: ‘We have the possibility to set the limits "from the beginning".’ And it also tried to do it. This investigation was set up in 1989, when the Swedish government appointed a Principal Administrative Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture to make a so-called one-man investigation about gene technology used on animals and plants. A white paper from this investigation was published in February 1990 with the title Genteknik – växter och djur (Gene technology–plants and animals).1 In the following, this white paper is called ‘the first report’.