Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Ethical and Legal Regulation of Medical Practice and Research
- 46 The Medical Market place, the Patient, and the Absence of Medical Ethics in Early Modern Europe and North America
- 47 The Legal and Quasilegal Regulation of Practitioners and Practice in the United States
- 48 The Ethics of Experimenting on Animal Subjects
- 49 The Ethics of Experimenting on Human Subjects
- 50 The Historical Development of International Codes of Ethics for Human Subjects Research
- 51 International Ethics of Human Subjects Research in the Late Twentieth Century
- B Medical Ethics, Imperialism, and the Nation-State
- C Medical Ethics and Health Policy
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
48 - The Ethics of Experimenting on Animal Subjects
from Ethical and Legal Regulation of Medical Practice and Research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Ethical and Legal Regulation of Medical Practice and Research
- 46 The Medical Market place, the Patient, and the Absence of Medical Ethics in Early Modern Europe and North America
- 47 The Legal and Quasilegal Regulation of Practitioners and Practice in the United States
- 48 The Ethics of Experimenting on Animal Subjects
- 49 The Ethics of Experimenting on Human Subjects
- 50 The Historical Development of International Codes of Ethics for Human Subjects Research
- 51 International Ethics of Human Subjects Research in the Late Twentieth Century
- B Medical Ethics, Imperialism, and the Nation-State
- C Medical Ethics and Health Policy
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The question whether experiments on living animals can be morally justified is today a central issue in bioethics. Advocates of animal experimentation argue for the scientists’ right to use animals in research by stressing the medical benefits that arise from this practice (Botting 1992; Paton 1993). In other words, they appeal to the reduction of human suffering as their basic argument – and sometimes also the reduction of animal suffering, through progress in veterinary medicine. Adversaries, on the other hand, emphasize the interest of animals in avoiding pain, an interest that animals share with human beings. These critics demand protection of animals, some of them claiming that we have to acknowledge animal rights just as we respect human rights (Taylor 1999). The source of this conflict lies in different evaluations of the human–animal relationship (Manning and Serpell 1994). It is a matter of debate whether there are characteristics that principally distinguish all human beings from all animals; if they exist, whether they are morally relevant; or, to put the question from the opposite perspective, whether there are certain features that are common to human beings and higher animals that oblige us to apply the principle of equality.
These questions are not new and widely differing answers have been given to them. The wider debate about the moral status of animals was often taken up in the context of medical experimentation on animals.
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- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics , pp. 552 - 557Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008