02 June 2008

John Rodman on the Paradox of Animal Experimentation

Beneath all else, slumbering but soon to awaken, is the paradox—old as the seventeenth century—intensified by recent studies of animal behavior: certain beasts are "human" enough (similar to man) that experimentation on them seems justified (to man) by the possible benefit to man; yet these same beasts are "inhuman" enough (different from man) that experimentation on them (in ways that would not be allowed on man) is morally permissible. Jane Goodall lamely concludes that chimpanzees should be housed and fed better in the labs.

(John Rodman, "The Dolphin Papers," The North American Review 259 [spring 1974]: 13-26, at 18)

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