Should Animals Be Used for Scientific Experimentation?
Should animals be used for scientific experimentation?
For many centuries people have experimented on animals. There are two main reasons for doing this: first, two find out more about the animal themselves, and, secondly, to test substances and procedures to see if they are harmful with a view to deciding whether or not they can be used on human beings. Therefore animals should be used for animal experimentation. Experiments on animals should be considered on a case-by-case basis. The proper principle to apply, however, is that the reduction of human suffering is our first priority and the prevention of animal suffering or death is secondary to that. So that if there is a decent chance that an experiment will result in an important medical breakthrough that will reduce human suffering and death then it is justifiable to allow animal suffering. Others argue that moral rights and principles of justice apply only to human beings. Morality is a creation of social processes in which animals do not participate. Moral rights and moral principles apply only to those who are part of the moral community created by these social processes. We humans have moral obligations to our fellow human beings, which include the duty to reduce and prevent needless human suffering and untimely deaths, which, in turn, may require the experimentation on animals. Although in principle it is more important to reduce human suffering, in practice it is possible and absolutely right to keep animal suffering to an absolute minimum. Animal experimenters should aspire to the highest levels of animal welfare in their laboratories, using anesthetics wherever possible and keeping animals in clean, comfortable, and healthy conditions. Supporters of the use of animals in experiments, such as the British Royal Society, argue that virtually every medical achievement in the 20th century relied on the use of animals in some way, with the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research of the Us
For many centuries people have experimented on animals. There are two main reasons for doing this: first, two find out more about the animal themselves, and, secondly, to test substances and procedures to see if they are harmful with a view to deciding whether or not they can be used on human beings. Therefore animals should be used for animal experimentation. Experiments on animals should be considered on a case-by-case basis. The proper principle to apply, however, is that the reduction of human suffering is our first priority and the prevention of animal suffering or death is secondary to that. So that if there is a decent chance that an experiment will result in an important medical breakthrough that will reduce human suffering and death then it is justifiable to allow animal suffering. Others argue that moral rights and principles of justice apply only to human beings. Morality is a creation of social processes in which animals do not participate. Moral rights and moral principles apply only to those who are part of the moral community created by these social processes. We humans have moral obligations to our fellow human beings, which include the duty to reduce and prevent needless human suffering and untimely deaths, which, in turn, may require the experimentation on animals. Although in principle it is more important to reduce human suffering, in practice it is possible and absolutely right to keep animal suffering to an absolute minimum. Animal experimenters should aspire to the highest levels of animal welfare in their laboratories, using anesthetics wherever possible and keeping animals in clean, comfortable, and healthy conditions. Supporters of the use of animals in experiments, such as the British Royal Society, argue that virtually every medical achievement in the 20th century relied on the use of animals in some way, with the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research of the Us