Use of Animals in Scientific Research

The current debate about animal rights is based on precedent set by Cartesian and utilitarian philosophers. Rene Descartes, the French philosopher, likened animals to machines because nonhuman creatures lacked the ability to reason and think. Animals, who learned only by experience, were inferior to human beings, who possessed the ability to learn through a variety of means. To Descartes, the inferior status of animals justified their exploitation as experimental research subjects. Descartes' basic arguments have been extrapolated by modern scientific researchers to rationalize their use of laboratory animals. Scientists argue that animal experience is related exclusively to the present. Therefore, animals lack the capacity to anticipate pain or to recall past suffering.

The utilitarian argument in favor of animal rights was led by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Bentham argued that the key issue was whether or not animals could suffer. Assuming that animals could, then nonhuman creatures possessed the same rights as human beings to lives free of suffering, pain, and death at the hands of others.