Unjustified Research Examples

Unjustified Research
One problem in science is the unjustified use of animals in research that is often very damaging to the animals being used as research tools. Given that science is generally taken to be for the common good and that when the scientific process enacts a harm it should be for some foreseeable greater good further down the line in a utilitarian sense. Research that harms the research subjects must have overwhelming reason for doing so. However, some examples from scientific research illustrate a problematic violation of these aspirational utilitarian principles. In the 1960s, American psychologist Harry Harlow ran a series of experiments on rhesus monkeys, where he separated baby monkeys from their mothers and recorded the

Research funding itself is allocated to safely established procedures and not considering the well-being of research animals is a way of cutting costs and maximizing profit, since alternative methods will require further investment and decreasing cruelty will require additional resources and techniques. This shifts the maximization of good that we normally expect of science and especially medical science (where the use of lab animals is especially prevalent) to a maximization of profit for the companies backing the research. Consideration of the good for the living research tools is among the first things to be

This can be accomplished through things like greater investment in media depictions of this problem through films, books, news, etc. the direct introduction of animal liberation literature into school curriculum and dissemination of these ideas into the national discourse through political organization. The public has already demonstrated an interest in protecting animal welfare and rights in the past, which may indicate a fertile ground for spreading and furthering these ideas. This type of effort would have the double effect of degrading the neglecting attitudes towards the interests of animals institutionalized into the research culture and amassing public support for pressuring academic and industrial laboratories into restructuring their profit biased methodology. This generated public pressure should then be wielded to push for the enactment of legislature that would set stricter limits on the types of research that are approved and more stringent ethical guidelines for animal research. Most importantly, there should be a pressure to invest heavily into alternatives to animal research along with a tandem effort to denaturalize animal test subjects. Another component would be to push for laws