Duties to Non-Human Animals (Testing)

Question 1

How many scientific procuedures involving animals were completed in Britain?

Answer 1

40 million

Question 2

Of the 40 million scientific procedures involving animals, how many were experimental procedures?

Answer 2

1.73 million

Question 3

What are the five grades of severity concerning experimentation?

Answer 3

1. Sub-threshold;
2. Non-recovery;
3. Mild;
4. Moderate;
5. Severe

Question 4

What is clear from the thresholds?

Answer 4

Oftentimes animal experiments are harmful for the animals involved

Question 5

What do animals lack in the testing process?

Answer 5

Consent

Question 6

Quote the Royal Society’s statement on the use of animals in research.

Answer 6

‘From antibiotics and insulin to blood transfusions and treatments for cancer or HIV, virtually every medical achievement in the past century has depended directly or indirectly on research using animals, including veterinary medicine.’

Question 7

What are the two premises and conclusion for the argument from benefit?

Answer 7

P1: Non-consensual experiments on non-human animals allow us to secure important benefits.
P2: If experiments on non-human animals allow us to secure important benefits, then those experiments are morally permissible (even when they are non-consensual).
C: Therefore, non-consensual experiments on non-human animals are morally permissible.

Question 8

What can the argument from benefit be appealed to in support of?

Answer 8

The common assumption

Question 9

What is the common assumption?

Answer 9

While non-consensual research on human subjects is not morally acceptable, non-consensual research on animals can be acceptable when there is the prospect of significant benefits

Question 10

What is the amended argument from benefit?

Answer 10

P1: Non-consensual experiments on human beings allow us to secure important benefits.
P2: If experiments on human beings allow us to secure important benefits, then those experiments are morally permissible (even when they are non-consensual)
C: Therefore, non-consensual experiments on human beings are morally permissible.

Question 11

How does Frey challenge the argument from benefit?

Answer 11

‘Any reliance upon the argument from benefit… has to be accompanied by a further argument establishing that while we may use animals as a means to the ends of scientific and medical inquiry, we may not use humans to these ends

Question 12

If we use the argument from benefit to support the common assumption, what do we need to do?

Answer 12

Explain how we can resist the amended argument from benefit

Question 13

If we reject the argument from benefit, what does this do?

Answer 13

Push us away from the common assumption and towards abolitionism

Question 14

If we accept the argument from benefit, we may also be committed to what?

Answer 14

Accepting the amended argument from benefit, which pushes us towards the extreme pro-research position

Question 15

What is the problem with making the distinction between non-human animals and human animals?

Answer 15

That making a moral distinction purely on the grounds of species membership is to be guilty of ‘speciesism’.

Question 16

What is Frey’s problem with considering other characteristics, such as autonomy, intelligence, and quality of life?

Answer 16

‘Humans will be found who (1) lack the characteristic altogether, (2) lack it to a degree such that they are not protected from being used in experiments, or (3) lack it to a degree such that some animals have it to a greater degree.’

Question 17

What does Frey ultimately conclude is the relevant characteristic for deciding which subjects to use for the purposes of research?

Answer 17

Quality of life

Question 18

Why does Frey believe that the relevant characteristic for deciding which subjects to use for research is quality of life?

Answer 18

Because value is determined by quality of that life

Question 19

Why does value being determined by quality of life not ensure that human lives will always be of more value than animal lives?

Answer 19

‘When a human life is of lower quality than an animal life, it will not be right to use the animal rather than the human.’

Question 20

What does being unable to separate the argument from benefit and amended argument from benefit lead Frey to do?

Answer 20

Endorse the extreme pro-research position

Question 21

Which other philosopher went through similar considerations?

Answer 21

Lori Gruen (2011)

Question 22

What position did Lori Gruen endorse

Answer 22

Abolitionism

Question 23

What may the differing positions on the common assumption show?

Answer 23

That the common assumption is not a stable position

Question 24

Which philosopher appeal to a principle of justice?

Answer 24

Chong Un Choe-Smith

Question 25

What does Choe-Smith say about a principle of justice?

Answer 25

‘As a response to historical injustices in the mid-twentieth century, including the use of victims imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps and the selection of disadvantaged, rural black men in Tuskegee, Alabama, the Belmont report included a principle of justice to address the unfair and unequal distribution of the burdens and benefits of research.’

Question 26

What does Choe-Smith point out concerning the principle of justice

Answer 26

That animals are assigned disproportionate levels of the burdens of research, while typically having no prospect of receiving corresponding benefits

Question 27

How could one respond to the principle of justice

Answer 27

To deny that the principle of justice applies to non-human animals

Question 28

Who is Singer in discussion with when he agrees on the experimentation of animals?

Answer 28

Professor Tipu Aziz

Question 29

What did Professor Tipu Aziz experiment on and for?

Answer 29

Tipu Aziz studied on primates for parkinsons

Question 30

How many monkeys were used, and how many humans did this research assist?

Answer 30

100 primates and 40,000 people

Question 31

Why does Singer justify this experiment?

Answer 31

That there was no other way of discovering this knowledge

Question 32

What does Singer say his position on testing is?

Answer 32

‘My position has always bee that whether an act is right or wrong depends on its consequences. I do insist, however, that the interests of animals count among those consequences, and that we cannot justify speciesism’

Question 33

What does Singer define speciesism as?

Answer 33

‘As giving less weight to the interests of nonhuman animals than we give to the similar interests of human beings’

Question 34

What does Singer say must necessitate an experiment?

Answer 34

That it is also ‘justifiable […] to carry out the experiment on human beings at a similar mental level’