disenhancement

plural disenhancements

1. A genetic modification of an organism that removes a capability such as sight or the capacity to feel pain.

   So, disenhancement promises to reduce suffering in factory-farmed animals by removing their capacity to feel pain caused by their terrible environment.

   2018 March 5, Jonathan Latimer, “Should We Genetically “Disenhance” Animals on Factory Farms to Improve Their “Welfare”?”, in United Poultry Concerns

   2 more examples

   It seems clear that taking away horns can count as a disenhancement in the parasite environment, since the change would result in decreased welfare, but not in the parasite-free environment, since the change would be welfare-neutral.

   2021 April 29, Bernice Bovenkerk, Jozef Keulartz, Animals in Our Midst: The Challenges of Co-existing with Animals in the Anthropocene, page 540

   Some suggest that disenhancement is relative to the capacities an organism "ought" to have, where that notion could be cashed out in different ways (e.g. the "normal" capacities of a member of a species).

   2020 March 6, Adam Shriver, Andrew Fenton, L. Syd M Johnson, editors, Neuroethics and Nonhuman Animals, Springer International Publishing, page 136