As a result, patients who receive pig organ transplants will almost certainly have to pledge not to have children, to use barrier contraception and agree to have their sexual partners monitored for fear of some pig virus spreading to humans with devastating effects. Similar examples are everywhere. These fish are designed to live in commercial tanks, but accidental escapes from fish farms as a result of flooding are common. Once loose, such creatures could easily out-compete native fish and cause havoc with the ecosystem. We are in danger of playing ecological roulette - and that is only while trying to make people happier and better off.
Genetic engineering opens the way to all sorts of horrific new weapons.
An accidental or deliberate release of some virus, bacteria or fungus developed for the military could kill millions. Scientists predict that in the next decade it will be feasible to grow food and fibre indoors on a massive scale in giant bacteria baths. On the one hand, this could lead to abundant supplies of food, cheaper prices and an end to world hunger. All very good. Biotech companies are at present frantically patenting animal and human genes, organs, tissues and organisms - but it is not at all clear that life can, or should be, defined as an invention from which profits can be made by scientists and corporations.