By contributing to health care, agriculture, energy, mining, and a host of other activities, genetic engineering will make life better for human beings. So great is its potential human benefit that some will say that the purpose of the technology is to benefit humanity. Our point is not so much to dispute the claim that genetic engineering will benefit humans as to clarify some of its limitations.

There is nothing sinister about the suggestion that genetic engineering will be used for the benefit of human beings. For example, a 1986 statement on genetic engineering by the National Council of Churches is entitled "Genetic Science for Human Benefit" (National Council of the Churches of Christ 1986). While genetic engineering does entail certain risks, it is becoming widely agreed that, with proper safeguards, the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks. This leads us to ask, Is genetic engineering to be developed, at great effort and expense, because of its potential benefit to humans? Does the human benefit justify the technology? Is human benefit the criterion by which we decide the merits of each line of research? While there is no question that genetic engineering will benefit humans, it is important that we think as clearly as we can about what we mean by human benefit. At least five problems arise when we try to say that the purpose of genetic engineering is human benefit.

As we have seen, many of the unintended, negative consequences of agriculture have occurred as by-products of intentional efforts to improve agriculture. Limited knowledge of ecology meant that our ancestors were unable to predict the impact of their farming techniques. Fortunately, genetic engineering comes to us in the context of contemporary biology, which now includes ecology. While this does not give us much greater ability to predict the consequences of our actions, it does make us aware that our actions can, in time, lead to consequences that are the opposite of what we intended.

While the dangerous, unintended consequences of agriculture have taken millennia to accumulate, the consequences of genetic engineering, both intended and unintended, will arise more quickly. The speed of genetic engineering, in comparison to traditional selective breeding, is crucial in this regard. The concern we face, then, is that in the pursuit of genetic engineering for human benefit, short-term benefits will be won at the expense of long-term costs, many of which may be unintended and unforeseen. Any particular application of genetic engineering may be beneficial for humans in the short run but damaging in the long run to the environment upon which we depend.

Genetic engineering does not simply bring greater health or comfort to those who use its products. It brings prestige and wealth to those who discover a gene or develop a therapy. This is not inappropriate, but it must be recognized in any candid discussion of the human benefits of genetic engineering. Weighing the needs of the hungry or of the chronically ill against the desire for fame or wealth is no academic question. Priorities for corporate and institutional research are determined by just such deliberation (Lappe 1984). What exactly will determine the uses of this technology? What benefits will be most influential in directing priorities for research?...