THE ETHICS OF PAIN: MORAL STATUS, EMOTION, COGNITION, AND THE LAW OF LABORATORY ANIMALS IN PAIN RESEARCH

Abstract

Pain research is often conducted on neurologically developed animals in order to develop treatments for human pain. The experience of pain involves the physical perception of pain, along with the mental states of emotion and cognition. Pain research is an ethically significant issue as it can cause animals to suffer greatly. One justification for the use of animal models is that unlike humans, animals lack moral status and are not entitled to moral consideration; as such, humans are permitted to use them in pain research. However, evidence suggests that both humans and animals can experience morally significant emotions, including suffering, and both have varying levels of cognitive capacities. Emotion and cognition are significant properties in granting humans moral status. Based on their capacities for emotion and cognition, neurologically developed animals also have moral status and deserve moral consideration. This moral consideration necessarily requires comparable protections and limits in pain research. Even though animals may be used in pain research, due to poor translation, the justification for the continued use of animal pain models is lacking.