Abolitionism and the Moral Admissibility of Using Animals for Research Purposes

Abstract

The article deals with the ethical dimensions of animal experimentation, particularly from the abolitionist perspective. First, I focus on the history of moral attitudes towards non-human animals and the development thereof. Some of the most important historical thinkers and their views on animal ethics are reviewed. The next section discusses the ethics of animal experiments, and includes some statistics and relevant views of animal ethics by certain important contemporary bioethics thinkers and philosophers. I touch upon the issue of whether animals are genuinely necessary for research purposes. Then I characterize abolitionism and describe its position in relation to animals. Abolitionism originally advocated the abolition of slavery and that of the death penalty. Over the course of history it extended to animal ethics. It argues for the complete abolition of the use of animals for food as well as in medical experiments. I conclude with a short description of the Slovenian legislation and European directives in this regard.