The Ethics of Animal Experimentation: A Critical Analysis and Constructive Christian Proposal (AAR Academy Series) - Hardcover

The time is ripe for a new book on the ethics of animal experiments, and this is it. Yarri's work is comprehensive,interdisciplinary, and pragmatic. She writes with admirable clarity, avoiding the pitfalls of polemics and prejudice. This book is deeply informed about recent developments in science, legal theory, and public policy. And it is eloquent about the contributions of theology and philosophy to our understanding of animals and their place in our world. Indeed, Yarri has succeeded in writing a text that functions as both an excellent introduction to the field of animal welfare and an indispensable aid to the promotion of more humane practices in colleges and corporations. She points no fingers, but she does point the way forward to a better understanding of the scope of our moral obligations. (Stephen H. Webb, author of On God and Dogs: A Christian Theology of Compassion for Animals)

The ethical treatment of animals has become an issue of serious moral concern. Many people are challenging long-held assumptions about animals and raising questions about their status and their treatment. What is the relationship between humans and animals? Do animals have moral standing? Do we have direct or indirect duties to animals? Does human benefit always outweigh animal suffering? The use of animals for experimentation raises all of these questions in a particularly insistent way. Donna Yarri offers an overview of the current state of the discussion, and presents an argument for significantly restricted animal experimentation. She points to the important similarities between humans and animals, arguing that the actual differences are differences of degree rather than kind. For that reason, she says, we must rethink our use of animals in experimentation. Animal cognition and animal sentiency together are the basis for the argument that experimental animals do have rights, which Yarri here enumerates. Christian theology, she shows, supports the existence of animal rights and contains additional resources within which a more humane animal experimentation can be worked out. Animal experimentation is not completely ruled out, and Yarri provides a model for what benign experimentation would look like. She concludes with a concrete burden-benefit analysis that can serve as the foundation for informed decision-making.