Pain-Free Animals Could Take Suffering Out of Farming

Philosopher Adam Shriver suggested that genetically engineering cows to feel no pain could be an acceptable alternative to eliminating factory farming in a paper published in Neuroscience. Work by neuroscientist Zhou-Feng Chen at Washington University may turn Shriver's suggestion a reality. Chen has been working on identifying the genes that control "affective" pain, the unpleasantness part of a painful sensation. He has managed to isolate a gene called P311, and has found that mice who do not have P311 don't have negative associations with pain, although they do react negatively to heat and pressure. This could end much of the concern about cruel farming practices, but unfortunately still leaves my design for the fiery hamburger punch in the unethical column.

Comments

Re:Kind of Creepy and Absurd

[Virak]

There are three options here:
1. Don't reduce the suffering of the animals with no effort
2. Significantly reduce the suffering of the animals for a reasonable amount of effort
3. Completely eliminate the suffering of the animals for an unreasonable amount of effort

Ideals are nice, but unfortunately we live in reality, not fantasyland, and demanding the entire world go vegan overnight is simply not going to work. At all. You can have a compromise, or you can have nothing.

I mean what's next? Engineer ourselves to not feel pain? Then is it OK to murder?

Murder is still murder even if it's painless. Killing someone in their sleep will not get you out of murder charges.

Re:Um, how about no?

[quarterbuck]

Removing the ability to do that can't possibly be good for their safety.
These are cattle grown to be eaten. They are often permanently caged, never see the light of the day or meet any other animal other than their neighbouring cow/bull/chicken. Given that their life is guaranteed to be a misery and their mode of death certain, I can't see how this would in any way make it unsafe.
Now if they were farm grown cows, then yes this would be a concern.