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A thought experiment I always like to posit is: what if we were the animal that needed to be tested on for the benefit of medical research that could safe a lot

A thought experiment I always like to posit is: what if we were the animal that needed to be tested on for the benefit of medical research that could safe a lot of the members of an alien species that is much more intelligent than us. Would that by extension also be justified? I eat meat by the way so I'm not trying to supplant my ethical views on you.

alex_sf 5y ago
Fwiw a lot of people would argue that sacrificing one human for the benefit of many more is worthwhile. Not something to celebrate, but an acceptable tradeoff.
- hulitu 5y ago
  The problem is that some of those people are also ok with sacrificing many humans for the benefit of few.
- edanm 5y ago
  Frankly, almost every country has an army, which is a in a since a vehicle that sacrifices some people to save others (young people, too).
elvis10ten 5y ago
I have a similar thought experiment but on “pets” —- What if an advanced civilization uses humans as pets
- mahkeiro 5y ago
  I don’t know but if it is like my cat who is free to come and go, I don’t see the problem. That’s not really different from the human life.
emodendroket 5y ago
I don't see that as really an ethical question... from their perspective, probably yes. From our perspective, we'd probably be trying to kill the aliens.