1. Current Event Project: Animal Testing

2. What is Animal Testing?  Procedures performed on living animals  Purposes:  Research into basic biology and diseases  Assessing effectiveness of new medical products  Testing human health and/or environmental safety of consumer and industry products  Cosmetics, Household Cleaners, Food Additives, Pharmaceuticals, Industrial/Agro-Chemicals  All procedures (even if classified as mild have the potential to cause the animals distress and suffering  At the end of each experiment, most animals are thrown out (only few are “recycled”/re-used in subsequent experiments

3. What Types of Animals are Used?  Mice  Fish  Rats  Rabbits  Guinea pigs  Hamsters  Farm Animals  Birds  Cats  Dogs  Mini-Pigs  Non-human Primates  Monkeys, and chimpanzees  It is Estimated that more than 115 million animals worldwide are used in laboratory experiments every year

4. Pros and Cons of Animal Testing Pros  Contributed to many life- saving cures and treatments  No adequate alternative to testing on a living, whole- body system  Genetically similar to humans  Animals themselves benefit from the results of animal testing Cons  Animal testing is cruel and inhumane  Alternative testing methods now exist that can replace the need for animals  Animals are very different from human beings and therefore make poor test subjects  Drugs that pass animal tests are not necessarily safe

5. Philosophers: What Would They Do?

6. Egoism  No human action is done for any reason other than for the sake of the agent  We are all selfish, self-interested  Psychological:  Humans are always looking out for themselves in some way or other; it is impossible for them to behave any other way (Descriptive)  Ethical:  People ought to look after themselves (Normative)

7. Ayn Rand’s Objectivism  Ethical Egoist  The Virtue of Selfishness  Defends the concept of self-interest  Claims that people have a right to look after themselves  Seek their own happiness  Individually, people should feel free to engage in whatever behavior they see fit that will enhance their lives  Actions that will mean more to oneself in the long run

8. Rand and Animal Testing: Should You Do It?  Can animal testing benefit me in any way?  Medical advancements: treatments and cures  Answer: YES!!

9. Utilitarianism  The most widespread and popular form of consequentialism  Moral guideline is a rule that encourages people to make life bearable for as many people as possible  Hard Universalists: One single Universal moral code  Principle of Utility/Greatest-Happiness Principle: When choosing a course of action, always pick the one that will maximize happiness and minimize unhappiness for the greatest number of people  Pleasure is good; Pain is bad

10. Jeremy Bentham  Hedonistic Utilitarianism (Pleasure seeking)  What is good is what is pleasurable; what is bad is what is painful  The ultimate values are happiness and pleasure  Advanced theory for the time:  Right to seek pleasure and avoid pain to all humans, regardless of social standing, but also said that the criterion for who belongs in the moral universe is not who has the capability to speak or to reason by who can suffer

11. Bentham and Animal Testing: Should You Do It?  Does the pleasure exceed the pain?  Millions of animals experimented on each year in laboratories  Millions of both humans and animals benefit from animal testing each year  Answer: Yes, There is more good than harm, more pleasure than pain when animal testing is involved