Is It Moral for Corporations to Test Cosmetics on Animals or to Use Animals for Medical Experimentation

Is it moral for corporations to test cosmetics on animals or to use animals for medical experimentation?

Animal testing is believed to be a relatively cheap and an easy way to test the safety and effectiveness of new drugs and products. Countless animals, such as mice and rats, are used in experiments every year. Most of the experiments on animals are extremely painful for the animals as no painkillers are used in the process. Quite often, these experiments are so brutal, that not only do they severely injure the animals but also put them to death. These cruel treatments of animals raise considerable ethical concerns that are questions of scrutiny in the contemporary world. Therefore, this widespread and intensive debate examines questions regarding the morality of the usage of animals for medical experimentation and whether these acts can be justified. Many animal rights activists advocate against using animals in scientific research, arguing that animal experimentation is immoral and should be prohibited. Peter Singer, one of opponents of animal testing, advocates that animals deserve equal consideration for feeling pain and suffering as humans. Therefore, it can be argued that using animals for medical experiments is morally wrong, considering two of the following aspects: infliction of pain on animals is evil and animal rights are being violated.

First, in order to assert that inflicting pain on animals is immoral, it is necessary to examine animals’ capacity to experience feelings. In her book, Ethics of Animal Experimentation, Donna Yarri, an Associate Professor of Theology, collected various data which demonstrates that animals have similar center nervous system as humans. One of the fundamental functions of the nervous system is to experience subjective feelings such as happiness, suffering and pain. Moreover, many scientists who study animal behavior agree that animals have the capacity to experience suffering and consciousness of their surroundings. They have the capability to react to their surroundings and circumstances. In particular, in some painful experiments, tested animals moan and hiss from pain. The existence of animal pain highlights the necessity of moral restriction on animal testing. Similar to the fact that inflicting pain and suffering on animals is considered to be morally wrong, it is also considered to be evil according to religion. The source of pain and suffering, or evil can be classified into natural evil and moral evil. Natural evil is any pain and suffering caused by natural disasters which are beyond human control. Moral evil is any pain and suffering which results in human action. Since animal experimentation inflict pain and suffering on animals, the action will be considered as a moral evil. Hence, it is immoral to treat animals cruelly in experiments.

The issue of animal rights plays a significant role in opposing animal testing. Since animals are capable