Medical Research on Animals and the Question of Moral Standing

Abstract

This paper examines the difference between utilitarian and Kantian accounts of what it means to have moral standing and why non-human animals have it. It then considers the implications of these views for the question whether we have the right to do medical research on animals, especially research that is painful, invasive, or fatal. It explains why the Kantian view rules it out, while the utilitarian view permits it, although at the cost of permitting such research on human beings as well. The reasons why utilitarians and others think it is permissible to do such research on animals are considered and challenged.