The ontological, epistemological, and ethical status of laboratory animals. From speciesism to biophily and bio-ethics

https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n32.03

Julio Alejandro Castro Moreno
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5864-0954
Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Colombia
jcastro@pedagogica.edu.co

Abstract:

This paper suggests that, according to the philosophy of biology, laboratory animals are viewed as standards, models, instruments, and tools, and so on, which accounts for what we call the ontological and epistemological status of those organisms. However, in the studies here inquired here, the ethical status of these animals is not clearly stated. Therefore, we argue that such a situation is grounded on a speciesist approach, which we propose to overcome through biophily or bioethics. This paper ends advancing several future challenges, like, for example, to reflect upon how experiments using laboratory animal could be ethically justified.

Keywords: laboratory animals, speciesism, bioethics, biophily.