I personally have never been either for or against the animal research. It never really bothered me, and as I read from the readings, I would have considered myself as a "minimalist" as well, as long as the animals were not experiencing any harm/distress and follow the rules and regulations that are available when testing is being done on animals. This would make plenty of sense to me if procedures were done correctly but unfortunately not all facilities that do testing on animals follow such regulations.
As I visited the PETA website it did bring up some questions while viewing a video on primates that were being held in a laboratory. It made my stomach turn as I saw the video, some may not think it's that bad, but I sure wouldn't appreciate if they stuck tubes down my nose and throat and had me tied down while they injected me with drugs. I certainly felt bad for the monkeys especially when they stuffed one into a big tube with such force, that it looked like they were going to break their necks and arms. Now I'm on the edge of such studies that can be done to help humans in the field of medicine, even though if it were to be completed stopped there would be a major setback for medical reasons.
Yes, in the part where they were shoving the monkey into the tube and how it was freaking out in there, I imagined myself being shoved in a tube and moving around to try to get out. Its true with a minimalist perspective it is impossible to stop all research that harms animals because there is always someone who is. Its a really big debate on whether it is ethical to do research on animals.
ReplyDeleteit was so hard reading this part of the chapter. i hate reading about animals in laboratories. it was sad, but when it comes to saving a childs life.. i see no reason to believe anyone would have a problem with it. if it takes an animal to save my childs life.... it has to be. theres no way i could choose a rabbit over my son. sorry.
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