The Use of Animals in Experimentation: An Examination of the ‘Technical’ Arguments Used to Criticize the Practice

Abstract

The use of animals in experimentation has a long history which, for the past few hundred years, has included a passionate debate over whether or not animal experimentation is moral. Despite the claimed productivity of animal research and our modern ability to take more or less effective steps to cure or ameliorate many diseases, the debate about the use of laboratory animals is today more heated than ever (Phillips and Sechzer, 1989). Opponents still challenge the morality and practice of animal research through the usual mechanisms of civic protest. A small group of activists are even prepared to risk arrest and imprisonment by engaging in acts of theft and vandalism to publicize their beliefs and arguments.

The research for this paper was supported in part by WARDS (Working for Animals in Research, Drugs and Surgery) of Washington, DC who awarded a summer research studentship, under the supervision of the author, to Cary Dyer of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in 1993. This paper is a reworked and expanded version of Ms Dyer’s project report.