Excerpt: When the Ethics of Animal Research Hit Home; Undark, January 2, 2026

MELANIE D.G. KAPLAN , Undark; Excerpt: When the Ethics of Animal Research Hit Home

"What if subjecting Hammy to a mildly uncomfortable blood draw somehow helped me? Or another dog? What if a procedure caused significant pain but promised to improve my parents’ lives? Or the lives of a dozen friends? A hundred strangers? What if a lethal operation on Hammy might — no guarantees — benefit a million people 10 years from now?

As I contemplated these hypothetical questions, my mama bear heart said “No!” even if inflicting pain on Hammy meant saving the planet. Intellectually, I had to acknowledge that this line of questioning was provocative, and contemplating the answers lit up my brain in a not unwelcome way. Ethicists grapple with these dilemmas all the time.

“Since animal experimentation began, the public has asked whether the practice is justifiable,” Lori Gruen, an animal studies scholar at Wesleyan University, writes in “Ethics and Animals: An Introduction.” She reasons that while some experiments have caused useless suffering and death to animals, others have yielded insights important in the development of drugs and therapies. But, she asks, “Is the fact that some benefits have emerged from animal experiments enough to justify doing them?”"