From October 31, 2012:
I feel the same way about humans as I feel for any living creature that would cause harm to another living creature for the sheer enjoyment of self-satisfaction and superiority.
Let me go off on a small tangent: We consider humans above rats, but the rat doesn't know how to mock, or sneer. The rat doesn't know if it is "right" or "wrong" to bite another rat's ear if that rat has more food than it does. If that rat is hungry, it will fight for that food to sustain itself. Just as the rat's lack of self-consciousness allows it to be free of any significant guilt, it is so true that being used as a medical experiment is not only unbeknownst to it, but also undecided. Because the rat cannot speak, the rat cannot object to its life being used as a testing ground for things that humans produce to inflict unintentional harm on another human.
I'd mention that the footprint of living space for cows and pigs and chickens are dismal at best, but of course they can't complain, so we don't seem to care as much as PETA does. We should care though; instead of mocking a human being for considering the livelihoods of other living beings, we should be considering how we look at animals a good sign of how we look at each other as well. PETA only looks as bad as its most radical members anyway. And besides that, have I mentioned that humans mock and sneer? There's rarely saints on this earth.
So my answer is, if the human wants to be used for medical research it is far better than using a rat that can't express that want at all.
- Anya
 All graphics © BY-NC 4.0 |  Tomorrow's Question: |