| dc.description.abstract | This thesis attempts to provide an acceptable solution for the long-term disputes on animal experimentation through examining the different arguments about animal experimentation ethics from contemporary authors, modern biochemical and relevant technology, and the laws and institutions for the animal experimentation.
Peter Singer considered sentience and self-awareness as the most important characteristic of living creatures, and employed sentience as the criterion for judging equality among different species. Accordingly, use of animals to conduct experimentation requires us to consider equally the situations when animals are replaced by human participants of similar sentient capacity. Singer was argued against the use of animals to conduct cruel and repetitive experimentations.
Tom Regan introduces the concept of inherent value to explain our direct duties towards “moral agent” and “moral patient”. According to his point, animals are subjects of a life and moral patients, and thus within the range of moral protection; therefore, animals have the rights to be treated equally as moral agents. To eliminate or prevent inhuman testing, he argued that direct animal obligation is an essential requirement in order to protect animals from injuries and being sacrificed under the interest-seeking activities of humans. His strong animal right standpoint amounts to a total elimination of all animal experimentation.
Martha C. Nussbaum argued that compassion is the basis of our moral treatment of the similar vulnerability of physiology and the psychology found in animals and humans. According to her work, animals suffered in the experimentation motivate us to have compassion for them and to help them. The capabilities development list of animals created by Nussbaum had its focus, not only on sensation of animals, but also on the emotional responses of them, reflecting her humanistic concerns for animal testing and our moral responsibility for animals used in experimentation.
This paper argues that acceptable solution for disputes on animal experimentation could be found from works of moral theories and practices. According to the well-being, animal right and compassion points of view advocated by the three philosophers mentioned above, proper laws and institutions should be established and maintained for animals testing, and modern biochemical and relevant technologies should be used to replace or decrease animal testing. By doing so, it is expected the plight and controversy over animal experimentation shall finally find its way out. | en_US |