How Do Animals Benefit Mankind

Should animals be harmed to benefit mankind? This question has become quite a topic of discussion among philosophers in the last two centuries. Animal experimentation emerged in the early nineteenth century. Since then, it has provided humankind with innumerable benefits and advances in technology and medicine. As a matter of fact, it marked the birth of experimental physiology and neuroscience as we currently know it. For the most part, when it comes to Animal Rights, two ethical issues are brought up- whether animals are rational beings like humans, and whether or not they are able to experience pain. As Bernard Collin expressed, “simply citing differences between animals and humans will not provide a rational basis for excluding animals form the moral scope humans are situated in”. Collins believed the true ethical question …show more content…
Several approaches have been suggested. Some individuals think that rights depend on the ability to have interest, which in turn depends on the ability to form verbal formulations. Most animals, perhaps not including some primates, would be denied rights if the statement above were true. Nevertheless, as Rosemary Rodd states, “beings incapable of possessing genuine rights might possess moral status in virtue of other qualities, such as the capacity for suffering.” All this points of view have been accumulating over time without reaching to any definite conclusion. Other individuals have suggested that these differences need to be analyzed on qualitative and quantitative levels. Simply put, we can understand that a cow lacks the capacity to reason and comprehend. At least, this capacity is much less developed (inferior) than humans’. However, we need to know, on a quantitative level, how inferior that characteristic is when compared to humans. Once we are aware of that, we can decide if the difference is enough for us to kill the animal and benefit from such