Animal research was considered ethically permissible under Descartes's view for what reason?

• A. Animals were thought incapable of conscious experience
• B. It was prohibited by religious authorities
• C. It was universally accepted due to animal rights
• D. It had no ethical restrictions

Answer: (A)

Under Descartes, animals were treated as machines without minds or conscious experience. The ethical issue in animal research centers on whether the subject can have subjective experiences, like pain. If animals don’t have conscious experiences, then harming them isn’t morally problematic in the same way it would be for beings with minds. So, Descartes thought animal subjects could be used in experiments because they were not capable of truly feeling pain or having inner experiences. That’s why this option is the best answer. The other ideas—that religious authorities prohibited it, that there were animal rights, or that there were no ethical restrictions—do not align with his view that animals lack consciousness and thus do not raise ethical concerns in the same way.