Abstract

We begin a critique of this article, “In Defense of Genetic Engineering from the Perspective of Naturalistic Fallacy Argument” with a succinct summary. The author sought to defend genetic engineering from the perspective of the Naturalistic Fallacy Argument. He believed that by squashing the naturalistic fallacy argument against genetic engineering, he would liberate genetic engineering from all its adversaries. He wrote: “This paper tries to eliminate the negative attitudes towards genetic engineering by demonstrating that they spring from the unwarranted assumptions of unnaturalness, otherwise called naturalistic fallacy.” (see pp. 1-2) In general, the paper is nicely written with divisions into several sections that make for an orderly presentation. The author of the article rightly placed genetic engineering into the larger context of biotechnology. Here, he identifies genetic engineering with the modern biotechnology as opposed to the traditional biotechnology. Then, he traced the history of genetic engineering and offered its definition and description. He equally explained well the naturalistic fallacy (cf. pp. 5-7), and its accusations against genetic engineering (cf. pp. 7-8). Finally, and before the conclusion, he explored the refutation of the accusation (cf. pp. 8-10). In this way, the author made a lot of interesting points in his bid to extricate genetic engineering from the bondage of naturalistic fallacy.