by Xiang Xiang Liew

Created on: April 27, 2008

In biological psychology, much research has been done using non-human animals as test subjects. This is because the procedures involved would be clearly unethical to use on humans, such as destruction of part of the cortex, deprivation of basic physiological needs etc. However, does performing those unethical procedures on animals make them ethical?

Consider this experiment on sleep deprivation using rats. A device shaped like a disc was used to force the rats to keep on walking, preventing them from falling asleep. The rats were thus deprived of a basic physiological need, that is, sleep, and researchers were able to investigate the effects of sleep deprivation. Eventually, after a long period of time, the rats died. The researchers found that, postmortem, the rats exhibited physical signs of extreme stress such as enlarged adrenal glands.

This study, through depriving rats of their sleep, caused those rats to eventually die. In the process, they endured great suffering. Is it ethical to expose non-human animals to such suffering just because they are a different species? If the same study were to be performed on humans, it would be extremely unethical as well as illegal on account of the intense suffering incurred as well as deprivation of basic human rights. Some people argue that we should not deliberately cause harm to other living beings, and especially not cause them to die. Therefore, causing suffering to animals in the course of research is unethical.

There is a counter-argument that says that some important psychological phenomena cannot be studied using humans and thus animal have to be used. In this case, the ends' (results of research and its contributions) justify the means (use of animals in research that causes them suffering). However, with research, we can never be certain that the results are enough to justify causing suffering to animals. Moreover, if the quality of the research is low, the quality of the results will be compromised and animals should not be used.

The three factors mentioned so far have been combined into a matrix to determine whether animals should be used in a psychological study. If the quality of research is high, and suffering is low, then it is possible for the study to be carried out on animals.

In the rats study, however, the quality of research was not really that high as there were a number of problems with the methodology. How can we be certain that rats' reactions to sleep deprivation is the same as humans? Much of the DNA make-up is indeed similar, nonetheless, there is still a great difference between the two species, especially in the brain. Therefore, the results might not be generalized to humans, which compromises the quality of the results. Furthermore, the suffering caused was high, eventually resulting in death. The usage of animals in this particular study was therefore unethical.

In some cultures, it is not unethical to treat animals badly and cause them suffering. In fact, in most cultures, animals are routinely bred and killed in deplorable conditions. Therefore, it might seem acceptable to cause suffering to animals during research. Nevertheless, as researchers we should take into account the suffering of other living beings, and not be blind to their plight in the pursuit of further knowledge.

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