Ethical Considerations That Should Guide Bio-Psych Research on Humans & Animals
64Ethical considerations that should guide bio-psychological research on animals are considerations of not hurting the animal or causing it pain, and also not destroying the species and making it extinct.
These ethical considerations differ greatly from those that should guide bio-psychological research on humans.
Humans are much more complex and understand much more, and in addition to the obvious of not causing them physical pain, there is also so many aspects to psychological and emotional pain which humans feel much more exclusively than any other species.
One must be careful not to trick or deceive a human, not to lie to a human, one can not just take a human and place him somewhere for observation without his consent, for that would be torture for the human, one must also be careful not to be racist between different races and nationalities of humans, for people are very sensitive to these issues.
A human cannot be put behind bars or have things inserted into their foods without their permission. A human can not be forced into any kind of experiment. On the other hand, an animal is not sensitive to many of these things. He eats what he sees or smells, and he won't know what is in there, and can't be expected to give permission for it.
As is clearly obvious, ethical considerations are so completely different when it comes to bio psychological research on humans as opposed to animals. Humans can say yes or no, but animals can't. We don't want an Auschwitz again. Many horrendous mistakes have been made when testing on humans. Non-human brains and bodies are simpler than humans; humans have a more complex brain than any animal. So it's easier to pinpoint the problem and what's going on, by looking at non-human animals. It's easier to conduct experiments, isolating one part of the brain, and see results.
People used to do torturous experiments on animals which weren't right.
Oddly enough, the society for prevention of cruelty to animals came about before the society for prevention of cruelty to children.
This happened because animals were the food and source of income of the people. Then there was no more torturing animals, but other experiments were still done, such as testing medications on them etc.
In order to experiment with drugs on humans, one is required to check humans who are already on drugs, and not to force anyone to take it. Humans should be held to a stricter standard with ethical considerations.
Humans are currently on a higher development- because of growth hormones, kids are reaching puberty sooner- in the 1900's puberty was on average at 17-19 years of age, and now it averages at 11 years. This happens from eating chicken, eggs, meat, milk, resulting in the intake of growth hormones, which makes one develop more rapidly- taller, larger, and stronger. Growth hormones are in the grains that the animals eat. One must be more ethically considerate with humans, but still need to be careful with animals.
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