I'm not sure I can agree with the article's claim that these experiments were necessary: "Without that terrifying two-headed dog, in other words, we’d all go down with our failing kidneys." Eventually we would have found other ways to collect the data needed for safe organ transplants than using live mammals. It probably would have delayed the introduction of transplant procedures on humans, so in that sense there wo…
Using clones to extend one's life is a similar theme in the book The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.
"And you my friend, how do you know I am not a fish — you are not I?" ;) It's splitting hairs... Yes of course there is no absolutely precise definition of human consciousness, but it does not mean that the term becomes useless. I can't draw a precise line between a plain and a mountain (where does one start and the other end?), but it does not mean I can never tell about anything that it's not a mountain
The term doesn't become useless, but it becomes non-usable where laws and morality are concerned. Should we experiment on cognitively impaired people because they are less intelligent than a dog or a dolphin? How about month-old babies?
Or in another way. The fact that we do not differentiate (in terms of "life value") between mentally handicapped, or otherwise helpless humans and the rest, is a result of a separate ethical choice that regulates relations between us as human individuals. This choice does not logically require accepting the notion of any animal rights.
I say that the ethics should be left out of the science. If ethics conflict with research - priority should go to research, until alternative, more ethic approach is found. And the ones responsible for alternative should be the ones that claim the current method is unethical - do not let non-scientists to forbid a research just because they think it is unethical.
Yes, lets leave sociopaths to their own devices. As they are the only ones not constrained by ethics.
I can imagine this would work really well. /sarcasm
I say that the ethics should be left out of the science. If ethics conflict with research - priority should go to research, until alternative, more ethic approach is found. And the ones responsible for alternative should be the ones that claim the current method is unethical - do not let non-scientists to forbid a research just because they think it is unethical.
What? Really? This argument is something I would expect someone like Josef Mengele to say, not a modern human being in the 21st century. You can't just leave ethics out of science. Doing so would pave the way for so many atrocities against both humans and animals "in the name of science" (and history is evidence of this).
If the experiments on monkeys would lead to a medicine that would improve life of millions, would you still ban it "for the sake of humanity"? Ethics sure have its place, but it must not hinder the vital progress. Today you save monkey from being "treated unethically", tomorrow you die with the same monkey from unstudied disease.
Yes, it is absolutely horrendous. I was trying to imagine what it would be like to be aware of being a rider of a host body, separated from my body, unable to control my whereabouts.
Probably not that different from being paralyzed. I doubt dogs in such a situation would get very far into the more philosophical and abstract objections a human in that situation would probably experience.
Yes, I agree. Probably not into the more philosophical objections and assessments. But there's probably a stark difference between being aware of riding a wheelchair and riding another human body...The latter being aware of what has been done to your body..
Yes, it is absolutely horrendous. I was trying to imagine what it would be like to be aware of being a rider of a host body, separated from my body, unable to control my whereabouts.
I'm not in any way agreeing that what was done was ok, however I have observed that my dog didn't seem entirely self aware. He use to attack his legs, tail, farts etc. He would recoil in horror when he hurt himself.
Oh okay, not a big dog person here. haha. Interesting.