Philadelphia Primate Head Study - Essay Example

Some decades ago, the federal government had to suspend the funding of the University’s Head Injury Clinical Research Laboratory. The reigning president back then, Sheldon Hackney, further issued a directive to stop the institution’s use of animal experiments aimed at discovering the best treatment for victims of trauma-related brain damage. The directive served as a timely response to a preliminary report by the National Institute of Health (NIH) aimed at halting a particular baboon research project (Meyer 1).

In my honest opinion, the use of primates in studies should be abolished because it is disrespectful to anatomy, unjust and goes against the ethics of beneficence and non-maleficence. In May 1984, Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activists intruded the deserted Philadelphia campus of The University of Pennsylvania and took several videos of animals suffering during various head tests (Orlans 71). The videos captured more than 60 hours of enforced baboon-suffering through bombarding of the primates’ heads using pistons in order to induce brain injuries.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) made claims that the videotapes showed actions of repeated violations of federal policies that govern the humane use of animals in research laboratories (Orlans 71). In the experiments, scientists disregarded the use of surgical asepsis and employed a very insignificant amount of anesthesia to the primates’ bodies. Beneficence refers to an action done for the benefit of others through prevention/removal of harm ("Beneficence vs. Nonmaleficence" par.1). The principle demands that all physicians should refrain from harming their patients.

The researchers in Philadelphia, therefore, through causing the baboons tremendous levels of pain, disregarded the need to observe the principle of beneficence. The painful act also illustrates a significant deal of injustice to the animal. I am of the opinion that, even if an animal has to die,