Should animals be used in research

Running head: SHOULD ANIMALS BE USED IN RESEARCH?

Should animals be used in research?

There have been many different kinds of cruel animal testing performed over the years. The most unnecessary types of animal testing are using animals for testing cosmetics and different products. Although it is very possible to produce cosmetics without testing on animals, some companies continue to do so. Animal rights have been a heated issue for decades, argued by such philosophers as Tom Regan. Regan believes that any practice in which an "experiencing subject of a life" is used as a resource is unethical, not because of emotion, but because of reason. Tom Regan is a firm believer and strong supporter of animal rights. This includes the elimination of research experiments using animals. First of all, to understand Regan's argument, you must assume that some things are true.

Papio anubis (olive or anubis baboon)

Products in Europe not tested on animals carry thi...

Animal,Porkey Pig, Lobund-Wistar

The first and most important thing you must understand is that pain is pain, wherever it occurs. This means that each and every animal on this earth feels pain and suffering just as much as any other animal. It is just as wrong to inflict pain or suffering on a moral agent, someone with moral standing who can deliberate morally, as it is to a moral patient, something that has moral standing, but cannot deliberate morally. Every moral patient's interests are weighed equally to those of moral agent's. Therefore, we must not discriminate based on any characteristics such as size, color, nationality, religious or racial affiliation, gender, species, etc. We must only realize that moral agents and moral patients all have certain inherit value, and all have it equally.

Another thing we have to realize in order to understand Regan's argument is that all moral agents and moral...