Animal Experimentation: Man's Best Test Subject

Man’s Best Test Subject

“All living beings have an inherent value and that to use any animals for experimentation is evil” (Mur 8). This statement made by Tom Regan in Animal Experimentation takes a strong stand on the controversial topic of animal testing, but this assertion is justified through various examples and research. He also states how humans, or moral agents, are able to apply moral principles in decision making. Because of this ability, humans have a duty to uphold that morality on other humans as well as those with an inherent value, such as animals. Animal activists strongly support this idea, yet researchers use animals to implement experiments that they claim to be morally justified and beneficial to humanity. However,
This issue is discussed in further depth in the introduction to the book, Do Animals Have Rights? Pro-experimentation thinkers believe that animals do not have rights and conclude that it is acceptable to follow through with animal testing. They follow the ideas of people such as philosopher René Descartes who believed “that no animals have rights because they do not use language, and because, he asserted, they are not conscious” (Carroll 4). Although it is true that most animals cannot communicate the way humans can, followers of this idea are misled, for consciousness can be defined as a state of awareness and can be categorized by thought and emotion. According to animal rights lawyer, Steven M. Wise, “entitlement to legal rights rests upon the existence of conscious states” (Carroll 5). Wise follows this declaration by stating how animals, such as great apes, behave in ways similar to the mental processes demonstrated by humans. They deceive and empathize with others, comprehend the idea of cause and effect, and can even recognize themselves in mirrors. For example, an ape can notice and will react to a splash of dye on their face when observing their reflection in a mirror. This characteristic in animals supports the idea of a conscious state, therefore animals are entitled to
In fact, the experiments completed are cruel to the test subjects. This cruelty goes against humans’ moral duty as explained by Tom Regan. Animals have rights along with an inherent value and treating animals in a cruel manner is wrong. The importance of animals is discussed throughout the book, Why Animals Matter. In chapter five, Erin E. Williams and Margo DeMello, the authors of the book, discuss the animal experimentation industry and go into detail about some of the cruel experiments done on some animals. Millions of animals are experimented on every year and they range from a wide variety. Rabbits are often used in testing due to their cheap cost and the fact they are easy to handle. An experiment named the gonadotropin pregnancy test originated the term “rabbit test”; this is where researchers “injected female rabbits with a woman’s urine, and killed them, in order to inspect the ovaries to tell if the woman was pregnant” (Williams, DeMello 182). A pregnancy test purchased at a pharmacy could have told the woman that she was prenatal. The test done on these rabbits were unnecessary and cruel. Aside from rabbits, dogs are also used in punishing experiments. Approximate 65,000 dogs were used in 2004, and are said to be used in experiments “because they are easy to handle, one tragic drawback of being man’s best friend” (Williams, DeMello 183). One cruel example is that