Essay
A level RE essay on ‘Apply Act utilitarianism to the issue of animal testing (20)’
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Well written in depth essay with examples and other philosophers such as singer.
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Apply Act Utilitarnism to the issue of animal testing (20)Jeremy Bentham formulated Act Utilitarianism, otherwise known as classical utilitarianism in his
book: "an introduction to principles of morals and legislation" to devise a system which would
challenge social injustices and create a more objective theory of ethical decisions. His resulting
theory is action-centered and teleological, with the purpose of each action being to maximise
pleasure of happiness. As such, Bentham was widely regarded as a hedonist as he believed
that goodness was largely synonymous with pleasure. Act Utilitarianism rests on the principle of
utility which states that the most useful action in any situation is the one which produces the
most amount of happiness. Animal experimentation refers to the use of animals to learn how to
medically treat humans.
Bentham would potentially refuse the use of animal testing. Singer said that "to discriminate
against something solely on the account of their species is a form of discrimination", it is a form
of speciesism. This refers to the use of animal testing since animals are living beings who
experience pain and suffering just like humans. Therefore, producing the greatest amount of
happiness, whilst simultaneously causing pain and suffering would be discouraged by Bentham.
Bentham was a rights activist, who believed that it is important to consider the suffering caused
by medical testing. Hence, why medically testing may be seen as ethically wrong due to the
amount of pain it causes to many animals.
Bentham considered an animal's capacity for suffering to be the benchmark by which we judge
how we treat others. He argued, "the question is not, can they reason? Nor can they talk? But
can they suffer?", meaning if something is not okay for a human being, it is also not okay for
animals. The Hedonic Calculus can be applied to achieve the maximum quantity of happiness.
A scenario is Bill has a congenital heart defect, a thirteen-year-old in heart failure, and needs a
heart transplant, but there are not enough hearts, however, research into xenotransplantation (a
genetically altered animal organ) could save Bill, but pigs have died in the testing and
transplanting process. According to the Hedonic Calculus, animal testing is ethically permissible
as the duration of pain is short lived for the pigs, and Bill is young, so has many years of life to
live. The extent to which people experience happiness and pleasure is that Bill's family and
friends will be affected by his death, so animal testing should be done to increase their quantity
of pleasure and happiness, as the pig does not have a family to worry about him. Richness is
how much more happiness this will lead to in the future. Evidently, Bill could continue to
experience happiness as he lives a normal life, and the pig's pain enables others like Bill to be
treated.
However, according to the Hedonic Calculus, animal testing is not acceptable as animal
experimentation is unreliable, leading to minimal future happiness and it is time consuming to
develop treatments, so Bill must wait and is not being helped (richness). The extent is that
millions of animals are reared for testing, so are created to withstand no happiness, only pain.
According to Langley, the known differences between mice and humans is 67%, which makes
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