Article Summary: The Case For Animal Rights By Tom Cohen
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In “The Case for Animal Rights”, Tom Regan argues for the total abolition of animal research by saying that animals1 have the right to not be treated as others’ resources. In “The
Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research”, Carl Cohen encourages animal research because he argues that animals have no rights and that animal research generates huge long term benefits. In this paper, I will first present Regan’s and Cohen’s arguments, and then state what may be Regan’s defenses against Cohen.
Regan says that we should not use animals in research because they have the right to not be treated as others’ resources. One’s right is an entitlement that forbids others from doing certain things to him/her.2 Here is how his reasoning goes. He first supposes…show more content… In the long run, benefits from animal research far surpass the pain imposed on animals in research. Not only should we not restrict animal research, we should increase the use of animals in research. If applicable, we should increase the use of animals to take the place of humans as subjects in medial research to minimize the danger or risk on humans (98-99).
I will give my defense of Regan’s view against Cohen’s arguments. In response to Cohen’s calculation of the net benefits from animal research, Regan would argue that even if it is true that thousands more human lives would be lost if animal research was restricted, animal research is still wrong. Suppose there is a fatal disease whose cure can be found by testing drugs only on humans. The drug testing has a ninety percent chance of death. Now we have a welfare house full of mentally retarded orphans, who are unable to give consent and perform moral thinking.
Should we use them in the drug testing, put them at a high risk of dying, to possibly find a way to save thousands of people who suffer from the disease? It would be morally repugnant to do so, because it would be wrong to treat them as resources that benefit to others’ lives. To