4 Animal Testing Flashcards
What does Degrazia say about animal experimentation in regards to the cat sex experiment?
Experiments should not be pointless, they should benefit human beings.
What did Nicholson say in regards to the cat sex experiment?
The freedom to experiment is enough, search for knowledge should never be constrained by concerns for animal well-being.
What was the cat sex experiment?
Mutilation of catd including removing parts of their brains and cutting nerves in their sex organs to destroy sense of smell/touch.
What does Fox think about animals
We have no duty towards them. They can’t make free rational decisions so are not part of the moral community.
What does Cohan think about animals
Animals can’t engage in moral dilemmas so aren’t people so we have no duty towards them.
What was Regan’s example
Four people and one dog are on a sinking boat. One has to be thrown overboard. He concludes animals have moral weighting but not as much as humans
What does Regan think
Animals have their own lives, despite being different and limited from ours, so we shouldn’t just think about them in terms of things to be used for our pleasure. We should think about them and give them moral weighting, and not automatically discard their worth.
What does Singer think?
All suffering should be given moral significance. Disregarding animal suffering is ‘speciesist’. It is the same moral inequality as the slave trade etc. We should be consistent and experiment on humans as well, or not at all.
“The righteous care for the needs of their animals”
Proverbs 12:10
How could animal testing for the sake of it be useful?
Baby monkeys deprived of their mothers at birth showed that there was profoundly negative effects.
What does Degrazia think about animal experimentation and battery farming?
Experimentation receives a lot more criticism than factory farming though the potential to do good from testing is a lot stronger than farming for cheaper food.
Where has progress been made from animal experimentation?
AIDS, cancer, malaria, organ transplantation. However, some argue progress could have been made without experimentation on animals.
What did the Royal Society say about animal experiments?
That virtually every medical achievement of the 20th century was possible due to animal experimentation.
How do scientists justify animal testing?
That animals don’t feel suffering, only pain, so it’s ethically okay to test.
What do Christians think about animals?
They have dominion and stewardship over them - Genesis 1:28
