Tools for Research

1
Tools for Research

• Peter Singer

2
Unnecessary Research

• Most experiments on animals dont contribute to
  important medical research.
• There is a lot of psychology, forestry and
  commercial research.
• Animals are used because they are similar to
  humans.

3
We Need to Stop These

• We should say experiments serving no direct
  purpose should stop now and alternative methods
  should be used whenever possible.
• We need to know what is happening to come to
  conclusions about what should be done.

4
A Kind View of the Problem

• He lets the researchers speak for themselves.
• Suffering is only reported when necessary for the
  science.
• Maybe about ¼ of experiments on animals are
  published.
• Species is an institutional problem.

5
Learned Helplessness

• Dogs are put into a shuttlebox and shocked to
  make them jump a barrier. Some were prevented
  from jumping they learned to be helpless.
• At first they yelp and run frantically,
  defecating and urinating until they finally give
  up.

6
Payoff?

• This was repeated many times over decades with
  other species too (rats, goldfish).
• In the end they decided this didnt help model
  depression at all.

7
Response

• Sometimes experimenters reply to worries about
  testing by asking if wed let a lot of humans die
  or perform a single test on animals.
• He says no single test will do.
• Responds by asking if experimenters would do
  their experiment on a single human infant under
  six months old?

8
Speciesist?

• If they say no they are speciesist.
• Most animals are more aware than human infants.
• We can even specify that the infant has severe
  brain damage and wont develop.

9
Limits?

• Would it be O.K. to make them drink floor polish
  or drip cosmetics in their eyes?
• LD50, eye tests, radiation experiments,
  heatstroke experiments and others would have
  worked better on humans.

10

• Of course some experiments have been carried out
  on kids (hepitis) but these are seen to be wrong.
• Still what justifies using animals and not babies
  of a similar level of intelligence etc.?

11
Morality is not Simple

• Sometimes experiments may be O.K.
• Torture to save New York city might be O.K. too.
• A good test is if the experimenter would do it on
  a human with comparable capacities.
• First though we should stop doing those that are
  clearly wrong.

12
Another Response

• Another thing researchers say is that experiments
  have greatly increased our life expectancy.

13
Little Benefit

• This is false soap and diet had a larger effect.
• Maybe 3.5 of the decline in death rates due to
  infectious disease are from medical advances
  (animal experiments were only useful for some of
  these).

14
Other Alternatives

• Research has probably contributed to knowledge of
  circulation, insulin, poliomyelitis, heart
  surgery, and our immune system.
• But these things might have been discovered in
  other ways if we had developed alternate methods
  of investigation.

15
Hard Questions

• We might have discovered other things too.
• We would have avoided a lot of wrong leads.
• Maybe wed even know more.

16
What Gives us the Right?

• In any case the benefits to us are only part of
  the story we have to consider the costs to the
  animals.
• There is nothing sacred about the right to
  pursue knowledge (56)
• We dont think that we can do experiments on
  humans without their consent, for instance.

17
The Real Problems

• Finally, the major health problems arent being
  addressed by research and we dont need research
  to solve many of them.
• We need to get rehydration salts to the 250,000
  kids that die every week from diarrhea.