Animals rights, as related to research, have always been a controversial
topic. Many people believe that animal
testing is cruel and inhumane, while others believe that animals are simply at
the disposal of humans. The deciding factor
in this debate would be consciousness;
this is a being's subjective experience of the world and of the mind. The
consciousness of animals has always been difficult to understand simply because
of the meaning of consciousness itself.
Consciousness is an experience of
which each individual can understand only on their own terms. According to the problem of other minds, no
one could ever truly know if their conscious experience is similar to another's
conscious experience. This understanding of consciousness has made it difficult
to determine animals levels of consciousness.
When considering animal research, it is extremely important,
yet completely irrelevant to take into consideration an animal's
consciousness. Consciousness is an
important aspect to consider because it determines how aware animals are of any
procedures they endure. Concurrently,
consciousness becomes unimportant when considering the level of cruelty directed
towards these animals. Should lack of consciousness really justify harming
another living being for research?
http://trauma.blog.yorku.ca/arts/images/Take Harry Harlow's experiments on monkeys for example. In their infancy, these monkeys were removed from their mother and placed in isolation chambers. Their isolation at such a crucial stage in their development resulted in their inability to interact with other monkeys correctly. One can only imagine how terrified any infant would be when removed from their mother and placed in isolation. These monkeys became socially disabled and mentally disturbed. Harlow's research had an obvious, detrimental effect on these monkeys. Though monkeys have a lower level of consciousness than humans, it was wrong to ruin any chance that these monkeys had at a normal existence.There is little difference between using a mouse, a chimp or a dog for research. The difference between the three is simply consciousness; chimpanzees and dogs have a higher level of consciousness than mice. This means that a chimp would be more aware of the effects of any procedure it undergoes than a mouse would. A dog has a lower, but fairly close level of awareness to that of a chimpanzee. Though a chimp's experience may be different from that of a dog or a mouse, each animal is still able to feel the effects of research.
Consciousness can occur at three different levels: minimal,
full, and self-conscious. Minimal consciousness simply consists of
understanding sensations and acting based upon these sensations. Full
consciousness involves a level of awareness in which a person can explain their
thoughts or feelings. Self-consciousness requires a level of awareness in which
a person can see themselves as an object. Different animals fall into different
levels of consciousness, though only a few animals are self-conscious. For
example, chimpanzees are one of the few animals that are able to see and understand
their own reflection in the mirror.
Though animal consciousness is not an exact science,
researchers have recently proven that animals do possess certain parts of the
brain related to consciousness. http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf
Advances such as these in science could greatly
affect our ideas about animal rights due to the amount of information we
possess about animal consciousness. New information about animal consciousness
could greatly affect the way we think about animals and the way that we treat them.
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