Treatments and cures to various diseases and illness do not come up out of nowhere. Research and experimentation have to go into ensuring these treatments work before they are given out as solutions to problems. However, the ethics of these experimentations are often questionable. There is no win-win situation but the ratio of good to bad should never be 1:1 or 50/50. The 1970 Monkey head transplant conducted by Robert Joseph White may not have been entirely successful, but scientists did learn a little more about transplanting.

The experiment was conducted on monkeys where the heads of rhesus monkeys were severed and transplanted on the bodies of other rhesus monkeys to find out whether head transplants could be possible. This type of monkey was used because it best replicated the human nervous system. Conducting experiments on animals is common practice in the science community and this obviously does not sit well with animal rights activists but then again that begs many questions. Who should these experiments be conducted on? Certainly not plants because there are aren’t enough similarities between the two and if not animals then that only leaves humans. If so, whose life is more valuable between that of animal and that of human? And if both lives are equally valuable and we say experiments should not be conducted on either, how then are we supposed to find cures to new diseases, pandemics, viruses, epidemics and plagues?

There has always been a dark side to science. There have been many scientific experiments that resulted in a lot of suffering and unnecessary deaths. Examples include the Tuskegee syphilis study (1932- 1972), project MKUltra, Dr. Leo Stanley San Quentin Prison Experiments, University of California Experiments on Newborns, mustard gas experiment, Josef Mengele’s (Angel of death) Human Experiments, Nazi Human Experiments, and Unit 731. There have also been accidents that that have had lifelong consequences such as the Chernobyl Disaster which had left a negative impact on the environment, wildlife as well as the survivors who suffered physical and psychological effects as they were more prone to trauma, radioactive poisoning, cancer and having children with birth defects. All these tragedies were an unnecessary part of history and did nothing but give evidence to how evil and careless mankind can be.

While all these catastrophes are horrendous, there is a lot of good that has come out of science which has been achieved through animal and human experimentation. These are necessary steps in the advancement of science (especially medical science). Even animal rights activists can agree that veterinarians cannot treat animals without out animal experimentation.  Thankfully there is a little more transparency in today’s age which has resulted in better collaboration between members of the public and scientists. People are able to donate their bodies to science after death and are also able to volunteer for human experimentation such as in the case of the recent testing for the Covid vaccine. Better technology as well as understanding of the human body also mean fewer casualties during these experiments. So, to what extent are human experiments necessary? Personally, I believe anything that does not aim to cure anything is unnecessary. There is no need for super humans, animals or weapons.