“Animals are here for humans to use. If we have to sacrifice 1,000 or 100,000 animals in the hope of benefiting one child, it’s worth it.”
If experimenting on one intellectually-disabled person could benefit 1,000 children, would we do it? Of course not! Ethics dictate that the value of each life in and of itself cannot be superseded by its potential value to anyone else.
Experimenters claim a “right” to inflict pain on animals based on any number of arbitrary physical and cognitive characteristics, such as animals’ supposed lack of reason. But if lack of reason truly justified animal experimentation, experimenting on human beings with “inferior” mental capabilities, such as infants and the intellectually-disabled, would also be acceptable.
The argument also ignores the reasoning ability of many animals, including pigs, who demonstrate measurably sophisticated approaches to solving problems, and some primates, who not only use tools but also teach their offspring how to use them.
In the United Kingdom , it’s against the law for medical (and veterinary) students to practice surgery on animals.