Medical Medical EthicsEthics

Fall 2011Philosophy 2440Prof. Robert N. Johnson

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Animal Animal ExperimentationExperimentation

Harry Harlow’s Harry Harlow’s primate research @ primate research @ WisconsinWisconsin

Total maternal deprivation of monkeys in stainless steel chambers resulting in psychopathy[John Bowlby had already extensively researched maternal deprivation in children.]Cloth ‘monster mother’ monkey experimentsHundreds of such experiements been repeated affecting thousands of monkeys.

““Learned Learned helplessness”helplessness”Dogs were put in boxes,

shocked through the floors hundreds of times and then punished for escaping. Eventually, they stopped trying

““Learned Learned helplessness”helplessness”Dogs that were first

shocked in fixed harnesses hardly tried to escape the box.

Heat experimentsHeat experimentsDogs, rabbits, kittens

were exposed to 107º-109º heat until they convulsed and died.

What were these experiments supposed to prove? That heat stroke victims should be cooled down.

LD50 tests, Draize eye tests

When is it When is it justifiable to justifiable to experiment on experiment on animals?animals?Peter Singer (utilitarian):

1)Experiments on humans are restricted because of our self-awareness, sensitivity to pain, and capacity for self-direction.

2)Animals, especially primates, are more aware of what is happening to them and self-directed than a 6 month old human, and at least as sensitive to pain.

3)Therefore, it is justifiable to experiment on animals when and only when it would be equally justifiable to experiment on a human orphan under 6 months old.

When is it When is it justifiable to justifiable to experiment on experiment on animals?animals?Objection:

6 month olds have more the potential to become vastly self-aware and self-directed than animals.

When is it When is it justifiable to justifiable to experiment on experiment on animals?animals?Singer’s reply:

1)This will rule out abortion too.2)Or: It is justifiable to experiment

on animals when and only when it would be equally justifiable to experiment on a human whose brain is so damaged it will never have any greater mental life than a 6 month old.

3)To think something can be done to an animal but not to a human with equivalent capacities is arbitrary discrimination: “speciesism”.

Analogy with Analogy with racismracismNearly 200 Nazi physicians justified their experiments because they were on “lesser” beings.Live vivisectionsInfected twins with diseasesPunctured or removed children’s liversSterilization, castrationCyanide injectionsFlaying leg muscles and administering various medicines

Singer’s StandardSinger’s StandardNo experiment on an animal is justified unless it is so important that we would be equally willing to do it on a brain-damaged (and socially unconnected) human.

Statistical Statistical chicanerychicaneryObjection: But advances in medicine have boosted life expectancy dramatically!

Statistical Statistical chicanerychicaneryNot so. Only 3.5% of falling death rates over the last 100 years can be attributed to medical experimentation. And animal experimentation is only a fraction of that!Indeed, falling death rates are largely attributable to public health measures, such as sewage treatment.

Do animals have Do animals have rights?rights?Carl Cohen: No1.Rights are claims

among a community of moral agents.

2.Animals are not moral agents.

3.Therefore, animals have no rights.

Do animals have Do animals have rights?rights?Why aren’t animals

moral agents?1.Moral agents can

exercise and respond to moral claims.

2.Animals cannot exercise or respond to moral claims.

3.So animals are not moral agents.

Really?Really?Often rights are based in

moral agency. But if they all were, then there could be no ‘inalienable’ rights, or rights that we cannot lose even if we exercise our moral agency to try to give them up.

Some think it is interests and needs that are the source of rights. Animals have interests and needs.