Antonio wants to become a doctor and is pursuing a premed major. He has dissected frogs and worms in some of his biology classes. He knows that animal research has produced good outcomes for human beings including antibiotics and other cures for diseases. Antonio's roommate, Joseph, is a vegetarian who is opposed to all animal research. One night, as Joseph is cooking some tofu, he says, "Look, Antonio, there are all kinds of healthy alternatives to eating meat. There are also alternatives to using animals in research. You can now use computer models to accomplish most of the same outcomes." Antonio disagrees. "Maybe vegetarian food can be nutritious. But even if there were other ways to do medical research, I'd want to be sure that a drug or treatment really worked on an animal before I used it on a human being."
Whose position is closest to your own? Which ways of treating animals do you find acceptable, and which do you find unacceptable? Is animal experimentation ever justified? If so, on what grounds? What about eating meat?