Utilizing animals for research as insight into human behaviors is debatably helpful and unquestionably unethical. But as every great scientist discovered, “the road to benefits is often paved with harms (Gluck, 78).” Testing animals for harmful potential side effects on humans is silly because their body composition reacts differently than humans do. Ethically, “animals matter because their pain matters (Gluck, 79).” Many people chose to turn a blind eye to such research endeavors because as I have stressed in previous blogs, it is easier for people to plead ignorance than to actually feel something. This way, society can take comfort in continuing on with their lives worry free of the oppressed.
Honestly, I can understand why some people react in this way. For example, many cosmetic brands test their products on a variety of animals before exposing them to human specimen. It is easier for us to sacrifice lab rats than actual human beings, but why? Why does this societal constructed hierarchy appeasing our innate ethical concerns? Why do “humans view themselves as the elite species on the planet (Titus, 132)?” Animals have a life, they can feel, and thus they deserve similar consideration and sympathies as we share with other human beings. On the other hand, we also use humans deemed less valuable as research lab rats too. The Nazis used the Jews. The slave owners used the slaves. The powerful consistently take advantage of their power position to put others in harms way before subjecting oneself to such dangers.
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