The Ethical dilemma of animal experimentation: A case study of Peter Singer's theory of animal liberation

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to study the dilemma of animal experimentation by focusing closely on Peter Singer's theory of animal liberation. Whereas animal experimentation is of importance to man, the proponents of animal liberation argue that the practice is basically anthropocentric and speciesist. In order to delve into the dilemma, certain things considered important have been dealt with: The fundamental principles considered to be underlying the notion of animal liberation vis a vis major reasons offered against liberating animals; evaluation of the scientific issues like causal disanalogies in use of animals as models in applied biomedical research and the relevance of basic animal research to human biomedical phenomenon. From the onset, it appears the dilemma is embedded in the "marginal cases" issue but it becomes clear that even if the marginal cases issue is resolved, another dilemma, which is rather baffling and mind-boggling, ensues.