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These scientists essentially created what may have been a new species, that perhaps would have had similar sentience to us and had them terminated after 100 day
by ma2rten 6y ago
These scientists essentially created what may have been a new species, that perhaps would have had similar sentience to us and had them terminated after 100 days.
I don't think that there is any evidence that other animals don't already have the same sentience as humans do.
I agree that this is unethical, but other forms of using lab animals or factory farming in my opinion are equally unethical in my opinion.
- pm90 6y agoWell, we do need to classify sentience... it’s not a Boolean yes or no. I agree with you that modern factory farming is disgustingly inhumane. But creating and slaughtering a species that can learn at the same rate as humans is uncomfortably close to slaughtering human babies, which is a line that perhaps all of society can agree cannot be crossed.
- XorNot 6y agoTerminating a pregnancy at 100 days is nowhere near "slaughtering babies". If there's a moral issue here, it's about the experience we put the monkey mothers through to conduct this experiment since they cannot reasonably give consent for it and are at a sentience level where this is a reasonable concern. From reading the article, given the value of this research, I think the concerns were adequately addressed - namely, the fetus was not brought to term, it was removed via C-section, the monkeys seem to have been adequately cared for emotionally, and it's a reasonable statement that simian miscarriage is a concept they would understand to some degree and thus not be overly distressed by the process. These were marmosets, not chimps so this is a reasonable level of precaution due their sapience level.