Josh Sussman:
I think you should be allowed to test on rats and fish
but not other animals or humans.
Josh Gans:
Animal cruelty is a terrible thing and it should be regulated.
Risking the lives of any creature for testing is inhumane,
whether it’s a human or a bug.
Matt Gluck:
Animal testing for humans is necessary.
However, we must do what we can to keep animals as safe
put them in the least danger possible
while still making the scientific advances that are integral in keeping humans safe.
Since, therefore, the desire of procuring good food necessitates the slaying of animals,
the Law enjoins that the death of the animal should be the easiest.
It is not allowed to torment the animal by cutting the throat in a clumsy manner,
by poleaxing, or by cutting off a limb whilst the animal is alive.
It is also prohibited to kill an animal with its young on the same day (Lev. 22:28),
in order that people should be restrained and prevented from killing the two together
in such a manner that the young is slain in the sight of the mother;
for the pain of the animals under such circumstances is very great.
There is no difference in this case between the pain of man
and the pain of other living beings,
since the love and tenderness of the mother for her young ones
is not produced by reasoning,
but by imagination, and this faculty exists not only in man but in most living beings.
This law applies only to ox and lamb,
because of the domestic animals used as food these alone are permitted to us,
and in these cases the mother recognises her young.
The same reason applies to the law
which enjoins that we should let the mother fly away when we take the young.
The eggs over which the bird sits, and the young that are in need of their mother,
are generally unfit for food, and when the mother is sent away
she does not see the taking of her young ones, and does not feel any pain.
In most cases, however, this commandment
will cause man to leave the whole nest untouched,
because [the young or the eggs], which he is allowed to take,
are, as a rule, unfit for food.
If the Law provides that such grief should not be caused to cattle or birds,
how much more careful must we be that we should not cause grief to our fellowmen.
Guide for the Perplexed Part 3, Chapter 48
