Published: 2023-12-29

The asymmetry of ethical obligations or the unequal treatment of various groups of animals in scientific research

Paweł Koperski Logo ORCID

Abstract

Animals belonging to different taxonomic groups are treated in a different way in scientific studies – this applies to wild as well as cultivated specimens. The scope and commonness of moral obligations with which animals used in scientific research are assigned allows for distinguishing clearly different categories among them. Birds, mammals and partially cephalopods have a privileged status over the others, and fish occupy an intermediate position in this hierarchy. The remaining groups of animals, invertebrates covering the vast majority of animals present in the biosphere, are still deprived of any protection of their basic life interests in scientific research. Over the last years we have been dealing with a real revolution related to the confirmation of the presence of advanced cognitive abilities in many invertebrates. New ethical concepts define a new paradigm in understanding and ordering their place in the sphere of moral obligations. According to them, the empirical evidence unequivocally dictates the abandonment of the habit of treating invertebrates as primitive, insensitive creatures whose behavior is based on simple responses and automated instincts. Concept of evolutionarily inclusive ethics may gain a special place among them.

Citation rules

Koperski, P. (2023). The asymmetry of ethical obligations or the unequal treatment of various groups of animals in scientific research. Zoophilologica. Polish Journal of Animal Studies, (2 (12), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA.2023.12.01

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No. 2 (12) (2023)
Published: 2024-04-10


ISSN: 2719-2687
eISSN: 2451-3849
Ikona DOI 10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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