Animal Testing in Psychology
...e the world's health? In our quest for knowledge, perhaps we should pause and look closely into the sad brown eyes of the laboratory puppy. Alternatives are available and more are waiting to be discovered. The end of animal experimentation will mean we have become a more responsible nation, working towards a better future for every species.” (www.entrenet.com/~cbednas/essaybio.html) According to the AMP, Americans for Medical Progress, experimenting on animals is totally ethical. They justify their side of this controversial topic by referring to past medical situations and experiments. One example is in the Dr. Thomas E. Starzl kidney transplant experiments. Dr. Starzl used dogs in his experiments, instead of humans. During his first series of kidney transplants, the majority of the subjects died. After finding out what had enabled a few to survive, he went back to the drawing board and revised his techniques before he did his second series. His second series was a little more successful, the majority of the subjects survived this time. In his third group of subjects, only one or two died. And in his fourth series of kidney transplants, all of the dogs survived. “The important point, said Starzl, was that the first three groups of subjects were dogs; the fourth group consisted of human babies.” If Starzl had begun his series of experimental kidney transplant operations on people, he would have killed at least 15 people. Personally I believe that it is ethical to maim or injure or kill animals for the purpose of psychological experimentation. However, if the injuries or death of the animal is just to find out how long an animal can survive under certain conditions, for example w/o adequate shelter, or at a certain temperature, then I would have to say no, it is not ethical. If the animal’s injury and or death will truly benefit society in the results and the outcome of the research, then it is ethical. I believe in creation, and incorporated in my beliefs are the beliefs that all animals were put on this earth for the pleasure of humans, and that humans are superior to all animals. "Psychologists undertake research with animals '...with a clear scientific purpose.' ...There should be a reasonable expectation t...