While I understand the moral issues behind animal studies, at the current moment our technology is not fit for doing only in-vitro work to get through pre-clinical studies. As someone who is working in biofabrication right now, it is the role of my current research to better bridge the gap between clinical and pre-clinical work when using less animal studies. The creation of new in-vitro models is definitely very important and without it, as unfortunate as it is, the need for these in-vivo studies will only continue to be.
This is a great question, and I think it has to do with the timeline of benefits, and how close the general public is to the use of the animal. In the case of food, almost all of the general public is taking part directly in the eating of the animal, so in my opinion they are more likely to rationalize the act in order to feel less guilt themselves. The benefits are also immediate, when someone eats an animal, their hunger goes away and they feel better then they did before eating(as long as the food was cooked long enough). In research, mostly the general public is not involved directly, and since they are not participating in the act it may be easier for them to denounce it as cruel and unnecessary without harming their own self image. The benefits are also less tangible and can sometimes take years or decades to appear, and may never actually materialize at all(which in itself is still a benefit, learning that something doesn't work can be a very valuable thing).
My thinking is pretty straight forward. Human are carnivores so we eat animals anyway. The fact that animals dies from human act not because of food source reason but rather to serve the purpose of enhancing human civilization should not be raised as a problem. I myself also feel pity for the animals that are traumatized by various ways in the lab then later killed by the researchers but I do not see a necessary to raise a problem about that because it is serving the same final purpose: maintaining human lives. We eat them to live, and we research on them also for the sake of curing diseases and disorders, which at the end of the day, is to live.
Hi mmd 55,
I appreciate you proposing this question as it did make me think and do a little research into why this is the case. As someone who comes from a family of vegetarians, I would like to believe that we do what we can to try and do our part in helping animals. However, I do see it to be necessary in trials for the advancement the human health as human testing would sacrifice many lives, and I would hope society values human life over other animals. People correlate testing on animals to them being cut open, tortured, or put in situations where they are put to the extremes. However, such extremities are necessary before scientists can begin implantation/testing on human subjects. I do believe that the media has a big role to play in this, but there are ethical standards in place to ensure that things do not get out of hand.
