Recent Wellcome Trust research showed the public found it much more difficult to understand why Dolly was cloned, than to understand how Dolly was cloned. There are few perceived benefits to the modification of plant or animal genes. On the other hand, human genetics has the alibi of improving health. Whereas there seems little public anxiety about genetic screening or even gene therapy, there is widespread disquiet about human cloning. This is where human genetics seems to connect to genetic modification.
People find it difficult to connect cloning to the reduction of disease or suffering.
It seems unnecessary, and above all, unnatural. But there are some important connections between food genetics and human genetics. For example, consumer choice in reproduction is much more limited than the rhetoric implies. Implicit pressure from medics to screen out genetic differences, and a lack of proper information about disability, mean that parental choices are not as free as they seem. Moreover, human genetics is about big business and corporate profits too.