Reasonable questions, valid points, no clearcut answers. Every country wishing to known as civilized should have strict - and I do mean strict - legislation on all aniaml experimentation. We probably cannot get around it yet, but every single instance should be controlled, monitored, and damned hard to get permission for.
My mechanisms for pain and suffering really aren't any different from those of a dog, a pig, a cat, or a rat. I don't remember offering myself up for even modestly unpleasant experimentation in cancer research, and may not have the rigtht to impose such unpleasentness on others.
Of course, I am a hypocrite like everyone else, happily consuming whatever medication I may need, without asking awkward questions about its history and origins.
My mechanisms for pain and suffering really aren't any different from those of a dog, a pig, a cat, or a rat.
The mechanism is the same, but the effect is very different. Other animals do not exhibit the anxiety about expecting or experiencing pain that humans do. While that does not justify putting animals in unnecessary pain, it does mean we should be careful not to anthropomorphize our reactions to pain (or anything else, for that matter) onto animals.
>Other animals do not exhibit the anxiety about expecting or experiencing pain that humans do.
What are you basing this on? If a mammal is exposed to pain, any stimulus similar to that initial cause of pain will cause anxiety and fear, just like in humans. They may not understand the cause-effect relationship of the stimulus as clearly as humans, but they certainly have the ability to expect and fear unpleasant stimuli.
>People don't say anything about the meat industry (okay, some of the vegetarian/vegan ones /do/), or that our cities are essentially organized to be large scale breeding factories for animals which we then massacre as annoyances.
I am a vegetarian. I do complain about all of these things. I am no hypocrite.
It's not a matter of emotions, it's a matter of ethics.
I was not talking to you specifically, and tried to qualify what I said because there is always that one, but I hope you can agree that you're in the minority of people I have this discussion with.
All the same, I do hold you in high esteem because it's a matter of ethics, for you.
Of course, I am a hypocrite like everyone else, happily consuming whatever medication I may need, without asking awkward questions about its history and origins.