A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

Intrinsic Value

Fundamental ethical concerns of biotechnology, like respect for nature, and naturalness, often are called “intrinsic” because genetic engineering of organisms is thought to be problematic in itself. Intrinsic value refers to the qualities of life, freedom and health. Therefore it belongs to the deontological part of ethics in which general values serve as principles. During the last agricultural crises involving animals in Europe, like BSE and pig diseases, many groups in society criticized the policy of the government and the EU using their own version of intrinsic value. The concept is now also applied in discussions on the genetic modification of plants, where it is invoked to criticize genetic modification. For example, the adherents of organic agriculture consider the introduction of transgenic material in a plant as a violation of its intrinsic value.

The concept of intrinsic value, formerly strictly reserved for humans, is only recently well established in animal ethics. The concept means that animals have an ethical status, a value of their own, independent of the instrumental value for humans. In the Netherlands the concept of intrinsic value is even incorporated in the law on the protection of animals. Without the intrinsic value of nature, environmental ethics becomes a particular application of human-to-human ethics. In this traditional kind of ethics the term “intrinsic value” is used to refer to certain conscious experiences of humans, and is thus ...