One animal some animal-rights activists don't mind killing is the homo sapien. Wesley Smith discusses these disturbing folks (as the forthcoming Intellectual Morons does) in an article worth reading on National Review Online today. In addition to the animal-rights movement's obvious antipathy to experiments on animals that might lead to advances in fighting disease, some activists claim that it's morally acceptable to kill medical researchers who use lab animals in their work. On both counts, these activists mark themselves as anti-human. "I don't think you'd have to kill too many [medical researchers]," Smith quotes Dr. Jerry Vlasak. "I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives." Probably not, but conversely, how many human lives--in addition to the obvious, immediate loss of the researchers--would we doom by way of medical advances that never arrive?

I wonder what Zoo Animals on Wheels would think.

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-424/epid-52115

You're worse than Sapphire.

I wish conservatives would take the animals rights argument a bit more seriously. It isn't as easy as saying that animals are our playthings, end of story. First of all, some animals are different than others. A snail is different in scope than a chimp. Between the Nature Channel and the Discovery Channel it’s pretty clear that certain animals resemble us. True, though they aren’t human. Does “close but no cigar” really equal an ethical justification for experimenting on something that isn’t on the lower scale of things and is in fact much close to where we are on the scale.

Also, shouldn’t the particular research being done be a part of the question. Does the research rise to the level of necessitating experimentation on animals? There is research done that isn’t medical such as cosmetic testing. Is it ethical to kill a few chimps so women can wear a redder shade of lipstick? And then there is medical research that is frivolous. Is ok to kill 100 chimps to find the cure for athlete’s foot?

There are questions that I don’t think can be glossed over. And by glossing over them we are guilty of the same sins liberals commit when talking about embryonic stem cells.

paleoagrarain,
question:"Is ok to kill 100 chimps to find the cure for athlete’s foot?"

answer:yes

"we are guilty of the same sins liberals commit when talking about embryonic stem cells."

That statement is completely wrong. You cannot compare the two.

Thanks for the in depth response.