The Ethics of Animal Research- Slides

What are animals tested for?

• Household products/ beauty

• Medical things

• Psychological and physical trauma (to study reactions)

What is a vivisection?

• Performing surgery on living animals for scientific study

• The most early medical knowledge came from this practice

Why is it that in the past we didn’t use human corpses to study the body?

• Human dissections were illegal for many centuries

• Before dissecting human corpses became allowed physicians only learned through dissecting animals (and then it became only corpses of criminals)

Who was Galen?

• Ancient Roman physician

• Worked as a doctor for gladiators and had lots of experience with injuries —> he has an incredible understanding of the human body

What did Galen study?

• Pigs and apes

• Made advancements in the early days of anatomy and physiology

What were the major contributions of Galen?

• Discovered the importance of the brain and how it’s used for cognition

• Rejected Aristotle’s idea that the brain was just a thermostat

• Through his studies of opening up animals he discovered that the organs were all connected to the brain —> understanding of the nervous system.

• He also noticed that the brain was connected to the spinal cord and the spinal cord was connected to the whole body.

What is the core idea of the mechanical philosophy of the 17th century?

Everything in nature can be explained by matter and motion and there is no mysterious or non-mechanical forces

How did we apply the mechanical philosophy to the body?

• Body=machine

• Organs= Moving parts

• Disease=mechanical malfunction

• Medicine=repair work

What was RENÉ DESCARTES main claim?

Humans consist of 2 substances:
1. Body —> physical and takes up space

2. Mind —> thinking and conscious

What are key assumptions from Descartes?

• Mind and body are separable

• The mind is the source of language, reason, and consciousness

What did Descartes think about god and the mind/soul?

God can take away your soul/ mind but your body is a machine.

You can be the only one with a mind and not know—> others can be “meat robots”

What was Descarte’s view on Animals

They have bodies but don’t have minds because they can’t talk—> they are automatons (biological machines):

• They do not think and do not feel pain

What did Descarte say about harming animals?

Since animals are meat robots and have no minds they cannot suffer so hurting an animal is not hurting anything. They only scream and cry because they are programmed that way.

What is Speciesism?

We now reject Descartes’ claims that animals feel no pain BUT we say that animal pain is less morally important than human pain.

Why do we think speciesism is okay?

Utilitarian reasoning:

• Animal suffering is outweighed by human benefit

• Testing animals prevents human suffering

• Problem: This prioritizes human happiness rather than than overall happiness.

What does Peter Singer say on speciesism?

• He is a Utilitarian

• What matters morally is whether something can suffer and/or experience pleasure NOT which species it belongs to.

• Animals have interests and one of them is to not suffer —> causing suffering requires very strong justifications

Is Peter Singer fully against harming animals?

He does NOT say animal life is completely sacred, he is says killing is justified IF overall utility is extremely high.

Most animal testings is morally unjustified.

What does animal testing look like in Canada?

• Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) regulate animal testings

• They set standards for research, product testing, and instructions

• This is only for the companies NSERC and CIHR but it’s not legally binding

What does Peter Singer say on animals having rights?

• Focuses on interests rather than strict rights

• He stays away from the topic of rights because Utilitarianism is about consequences and rights are about hard set-in-stone rules which doesn’t fit Utilitarianism.

What does Carl Cohen say?

Animals don’t have rights

Why does Carl Cohen believe animals don’t have rights?

1. Rights are held by someone against someone else that prevents that someone else from committing an action against them.

• Animals cannot make moral claims

• Animals don’t understand duties

• Animals cannot be autonomous

• Animals cannot follow moral law

• Conclusion: Animals have no right and animal testing does not violate any rights

What Carl Cohen say about obligations?

Humans have obligations

• Avoid cruelty

• Avoid unnecessary suffering

What does Cohen say on speciesism?

Species membership is morally relevant.

Humans:
- Plan for the future

• Participate in moral communities

• Make moral judgments

• Speciesism is not like racism or sexism

What does Tom Regan say?

Animals DO have rights
Key idea:
- Animals are individuals with their own lives and experiences, so using them in experiments is wrong because it violates their right to life and bodily autonomy, even if humans benefit.

What is the difference between welfarist and rightist?

Welfarist- Their goal is to reduce suffering but they are utilitarians so they allow some animal testing (only if it will increase overall utility by a lot) —> Peter Singer

Rightists- Saying animals have rights and oppose animal testing altogether —> Tom Regan