Work

Can Knowledge Itself Justify Harmful Research?

Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: In our paper, we argue for three necessary conditions for morally permissible animal research: (1) an assertion (or expectation) of sufficient net benefit, (2) a worthwhile-life condition, and (3) a no-unnecessary-harm/qualified-basic-needs condition.1 We argue that these conditions are necessary, without taking a position on whether they are jointly sufficient. In their excellent commentary on our paper, Matthias Eggel, Carolyn Neuhaus, and Herwig Grimm (hereafter, the authors) argue for a friendly amendment to one of our three conditions.2 In particular, they argue for replacing the first condition-expectation of sufficient net benefit (ESNB)-with an expectation of knowledge production (EKP).3 In this reply, we will explain why we are open to this proposed amendment, but not yet convinced.
Language: English
Subfield: Small Animals
Field: Veterinary
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3011617748
FWCI: 0.642
Cites: 4
Cited by: 4
Related to: 10