Animal ethics encompasses different arguments about the best way to treat animals in light of human interests. According to the book Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, three standard positions can be seen in the field.
The animal rights campaign is one of the most well known in the media. It posits that all animals are sentient and capable of feeling emotions similar to ours. Therefore, they have the right not to be used for food, experiments, or clothing, and humans have a duty to ensure that each animal is protected.
The animal welfare argument is similar. While it agrees that animals have interests, it tones down the concept of animals having rights, relying instead on utilitarian reasoning.
Finally, the anthropocentric argument states that humans can use animals in any way they wish, as long as it is not cruel. However, cruelty to animals is only disallowed in this argument because it negatively affects humans. Anthropocentric arguments center on humans and reject animals’ interests as mostly, if not entirely, unimportant. In contrast, the other two arguments take human and animal interests into equal consideration.
To solve ethical issues relating to the use of live animals in experiments, is it now time to replace animals with computer models in research?
Some animal species, such as rabbits, mice, and rats, are chosen because the Animal Welfare Act does not enforce protections for them and because they are small and reproduce prolifically, allowing them to contribute to future experiments. Researchers choose monkeys because of their similarity to humans, and they also consider mice and rats to have minimal DNA differences from humans.
Researchers use these animals in testing to determine whether a drug treatment will work on humans or whether a cosmetic will irritate skin or eyes. They also use them in experiments that aim to reveal insights into human mental health and learning capabilities, since these animals are highly intelligent.
Against experiments, the best position is that of animal rights. There has been unnecessary mistreatment of animals in the production of scientific studies, and many experiments can seem very inhumane in light of this.
Many monkeys have to endure solitary confinement, and they are compelled to pull their hair out or endlessly walk back and forth. These incidents have occurred as recently as 2026
Highly intelligent mice and rats have been forced to swim with no way to escape, and then scientists study their brains when they have died.
Many species have very sensitive eyes and can get irritated by cosmetics, if not blinded.
Animals this small or young will get easily frightened. They have interests in avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. According to animal rights, it is not in an animal’s interest to subject it to needless pain. In fact, computer models are seen as a more ethical way to conduct experiments and obtain the same information that an animal experiment would provide.
Sometimes, experiments using animals are flawed in their very essence because these animals are not humans and do not react to drugs in exactly the same ways people do.
On the other hand, an anthropocentric argument would say that it is okay to use animals in experiments as long as they are for a valid medical or scientific reason.
Mice and rats have paved the way for many science experiments relating to the human brain. Rats in mazes have been seen to display their knowledge faster when they are motivated to find the end of the maze than when there is no motivation, although the rats that were not motivated did learn the map of the maze anyway, showing how the studies relate to human learning and latent learning, or knowledge stored for later use. The effects of illegal drugs have frequently been studied in rodents, sparing people from having to be experimented on with these drugs.
However, it might seem more cost-effective to just use computer models. A single computer program might cost much less than thousands of rats, mice, or rabbits that die quickly. Rats and mice live to be maybe two or three years old. Rabbits may make it to twelve years old. The computer program would be just as useful, if not more useful, than a rat in an experiment because advanced technology allows a researcher to test a virtual subject and obtain scientific information without needing to use a physical experiment with a live animal. It would also not use up as many taxpayer monies. Anthropocentric and animal rights arguments could agree on using computers to replace animals if computers are marketed to the research community as an alternative that costs less but is still useful.
The anthropocentric argument does admit that it is wrong to be cruel to animals because it negatively affects people; one cannot will cruelty to animals as a universal practice since it debases people, so it is disallowed in this argument as per Theory and Contemporary Issues and Kantian reasoning. However, the anthropocentric argument dismisses the possibility of animals having rights and only focuses on the effects to people and human interests.
Experiments done on rats and mice have made many advances in scientific research and would likely be allowed under the anthropocentric argument. However, it is in human interests to be efficient and cost-effective with the resources that humans use in experiments. It is also in human interests to try to soothe the outrage from animal rights activists when anthropocentric experiments result in controversy over the ways the animals were treated. As a result, it may be in anthropocentric as well as animal rights arguments’ favor to replace experimental animals entirely with computer models that perform the same functions and garner the same data without causing any of the problems experimental animals do. The University of Bristol, for example, uses computers “when possible.”
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