The Speakers' Corner Trust -- a charity organization that promotes free expression, public debate and active citizenship -- recently organized a debate on the role of animals in research. Michelle Thew of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) debated Tom Holder of Speaking of Research. In her opening remarks Ms. Thew compared … Continue reading The Speaker’s Corner Trust Debate
Author: darioringach
Cat Helicopter Exposes Moral Confusion Among Animal Rights Activists
Animal rights theorists argue that our moral consideration for a living being must rest exclusively on its intrinsic properties -- the notion of moral individualism. I explained earlier that accepting such an idea would imply our use of human or animal remains for an art project in school would be equivalent to using play-dough or … Continue reading Cat Helicopter Exposes Moral Confusion Among Animal Rights Activists
Speaking of Morality
It was with the goal of sharing my personal views on the ethics of animal research that I recently published a manuscript on the topic. I also participated in two separate, public debates with animal rights philosophers Gary Francione and Nathan Nobis. Briefly, my position is based on the notion of graded moral status. I believe we owe moral consideration … Continue reading Speaking of Morality
Not Difficult To Grasp
Paralysis can have tremendous negative consequences for a person's quality of life. In the US alone, there are more than 200 thousand people living with chronic spinal cord injury, which is a cause of immense suffering to them and their families. The disease generates economic burden for society as well. Thus, there has been … Continue reading Not Difficult To Grasp
Frans de Waal’s Ethical Arguments Need Clarification
In a recent perspective, Professor Frans de Waal argues that chimpanzees deserve “special moral status.” The statement comes on the heels of a recent report by the Institute of Medicine who proposed strict criteria on the use of chimps on biomedical research. According to de Waal there are compelling ethical reasons to ban all invasive work on … Continue reading Frans de Waal’s Ethical Arguments Need Clarification
BrainFacts.org goes live!
The increased need and recognition for scientists to engage with public and policymakers on the importance and value of their work has been reflected by BrainFacts.org going live this week. This important public education initiative from The Kavli Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and the Society for Neuroscience is an exciting development. Leading scientists from … Continue reading BrainFacts.org goes live!
The Golden Goose Awards
Politicians sometimes deride research based on the what they perceive as being "silly" titles of federal funded grants. If they spot a title that deals with "games", for example, they may assume it deals with some sort of amusement of little value to society, instead of a deep, powerful branch of mathematics that describes the behavior of … Continue reading The Golden Goose Awards
Straight from the animal rights book
It is that time of the year when animal rights activists, will show up at our workplaces dressed in their favorite animal costumes to spread more nonsense and misinformation about the nature of biomedical research. One of their favorite claims is that the scientific community treats animals like any other piece of disposable, laboratory equipment … Continue reading Straight from the animal rights book
Speaking of Research 