Ethics considers which things are good and fair. It also considers what we humans are entitled to and what obligations we have to each other and to nature. Most often, an ethical person asks awkward questions.

Quickly thought, the breeding of plants and animals sounds good and worthwhile merely as a means of helping humanity and improving the quality of life in the world.

However, when you start to think about the issue more closely, you can see that the cause of famine is not food shortages but poverty, which is not solved by breeding better-yielding plant varieties. For example, seeds of genetically modified high-yield cereals are patented to large companies, who can therefore determine their prices as they see fit. The high cost of genetic engineering affects the position of farmers. At the same time, global food production is concentrated in the hands of a few big businesses, out of the reach of democratic decision-making. Who is allowed to own inventions that benefit everyone?

Animal experiments have become even more painful, even though genetic engineering would also offer opportunities in research into the use of cell cultures. It is predicted that animal testing will become unnecessary in the 2030s. However, this cannot be achieved if governments, companies and researchers do not work together.

Even greater ethical dilemmas occur in medicine. New, more effective treatments are expensive. Who can afford them? Who gets them?

In gene therapy, new genes can be transferred to gametes, creating a new hereditary trait as a result of gene therapy. Can it lead to, for example, “factory production for custom babies” and thus “breeding”?

Fetal screening aims to find out the serious illnesses of a future child in advance. One may think that it is good to terminate a pregnancy if the child is suffering from a serious illness. But what is such a serious illness? When will non-musicality, or even gender, be considered a sufficient justification for termination?

Human clones may be produced in the future. The reason for cloning may be a selfish desire to have a child who meets all of their parents' wishes. Cloning is also very difficult and expensive. There are many failed experiments ahead of successful cloning.