The Ethics of Animal Use in Biomedical Research Essay

Both in and out of philosophical circle, animals have traditionally been seen as significantly different from, and inferior to, humans because they lacked a certain intangible quality – reason, moral agency, or consciousness – that made them moral agents. Recently however, society has patently begun to move beyond this strong anthropocentric notion and has begun to reach for a more adequate set of moral categories for guiding, assessing and constraining our treatment of other animals. As a growing proportion of the populations in western countries adopts the general position of animal liberation, more and more philosophers are beginning to agree that sentient creatures are of a direct moral concern to humans, though the degree of this†¦show more content†¦Every year, in Europe and in North America tens of millions of animals are used for scientific research, for the testing of drugs and consumer goods as well as for educational purposes including dissection, and surgery practice. The Draize test and the LD50 (lethal dose 50 percent) in particular have been criticized for their animal cruelty and have gained increasing resistance on the part of the animal liberationists and the general public. The Draize test, which involves testing the acute acidity of cosmetics and household products on rabbits’ eyes, and the LD50, in which the toxicity of a substance by determining the dose required to kill fifty percent of the test group within fourteen days, however, are merely two example of the cruelty experienced by animals in biomedical research laboratories. The two most prominent current defenders of strong status for animals are neo-Kantian philosopher Tom Regan and utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer. Although they undertake this defence from two different theoretical perspectives, as neo-Kantians defend this position in terms of rights, and utilitarians tend to avoid talking in terms of rights, they arrive at the same conclusion: there is no difference between humans and animals which can justify the conclusion that a human life is of greater value than an animal life. Australian philosopher Peter Singer in his book, first published in 1975, popularized the term â€Å"animalShow MoreRelatedThe Ethics Of Animal Research Essay1588 Words   |  7 Pages- Is the use of Animals in Biomedical Research Morally Justified? 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