Current Event Article #2: The Ethics of Animal Testing Volkswagen is currently under a fire because it has come to light that they help fund tests where humans and monkeys inhaled diesel fumes for hours. The nature of the tests is still not known, as the findings have not been made public, however two independent scientists that have conducted air pollution tests on human volunteers told BBC that similar tests on humans are common (Gunter, 2018). The controversial and unethical testing was found to be funded by a lobbyist group, not independent or by government. In these tests, “participants spend up to two hours in a sealed environment chamber breathing diluted diesel fumes equivalent to the levels of air pollution in Beijing or Delhi”
…show more content…
Since values are norms developed that are socially enforced, VW should’ve known that if this got out to the public, they would be socially shamed. Animal testing is an ethical issue that has been argued for a long time and is in the news quite often. It is easy to agree that it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer and experimenting on them (BBC, 2018). There are two views on if it is ethical; human benefits are gained or causing suffering to animals from effects of testing. This can create a form of egoism. Egoism is a form of consequentialism that defines right or acceptable conduct in terms of self-interest (Ferrell, Thorne, & Ferrell, 2016). For animal testing, no one will ever completely agree because of ethical diversity. Meaning values will often differ person to …show more content…
However, I find it a very interesting and it is something I would continue to follow up on. I know that the EU has banned animal testing, along with many other countries. The United States still deems it as legal, and hopefully they will decide otherwise and come up with a better solution for testing in the future. Personally I have never seen or experienced the effects of it, so I find it hard to argue because for most people it does not directly affect them. However, people who have a personal connection to animals see this situation as very heavy which is why I think there has not become any certain solution for it. I hope for the future that animal testing will come to an end as it probably creates social norms like animal cruelty. When it is ok to make an animal suffer by being tested, some people in the world are going to see no difference in-between the two instances, creating a negative social
Since values are norms developed that are socially enforced, VW should’ve known that if this got out to the public, they would be socially shamed. Animal testing is an ethical issue that has been argued for a long time and is in the news quite often. It is easy to agree that it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer and experimenting on them (BBC, 2018). There are two views on if it is ethical; human benefits are gained or causing suffering to animals from effects of testing. This can create a form of egoism. Egoism is a form of consequentialism that defines right or acceptable conduct in terms of self-interest (Ferrell, Thorne, & Ferrell, 2016). For animal testing, no one will ever completely agree because of ethical diversity. Meaning values will often differ person to …show more content…
However, I find it a very interesting and it is something I would continue to follow up on. I know that the EU has banned animal testing, along with many other countries. The United States still deems it as legal, and hopefully they will decide otherwise and come up with a better solution for testing in the future. Personally I have never seen or experienced the effects of it, so I find it hard to argue because for most people it does not directly affect them. However, people who have a personal connection to animals see this situation as very heavy which is why I think there has not become any certain solution for it. I hope for the future that animal testing will come to an end as it probably creates social norms like animal cruelty. When it is ok to make an animal suffer by being tested, some people in the world are going to see no difference in-between the two instances, creating a negative social