An animal experiment cannot be justifiable unless the experiment is so important that the use of a brain-damaged human would be justifiable.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The problem with experiments has always been that human beings make the decisions on whether or not the animals have benefitted from the treatment.
Most of the time, those who use animals in experiments justify that use by pointing to alleged benefits to human and animal health and the supposed necessity of using animals to obtain those benefits.
Scientists should not do animal testing if there is any alternative, but subject to that, I would support it on grounds of the medical benefits.
There has been so much underestimating of animal cognition that to perhaps overestimate it, as I probably do, is probably a healthy reaction.
The history of using mice to stand in for humans in medical experiments is replete with failures.
I wouldn't want to see any animal in pain, no matter what.
The un-conscious distortion of the facts is almost harmless compared to the unconscious neglect of an animal's mental life until it verges on the unusual and marvelous.
The ingestion of brain-altering chemicals - legal or illegal - cannot be categorized as good stewardship of our earthly lives.
It seems that this situation is not restricted to science but is more generally human.
It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.