Question: Do you think testing on fruit flies is fair?

Leo Garcia answered on 14 Jun 2010:

As with all animal testing, we take the somewhat controversial decision of not bothering asking the animal’s consent – we use the animal regardless of what it might have decided about taking part.

Great care is taken to ensure that animals are cared for, and their suffering is minimised during a scientist’s work. This is particularly important for highly sensitive animals like primates. At the other end of the scale are fruit flies – who are short lived, and (though this is controversial) don’t feel pain in any way that we could imagine.

After all, who hasn’t flushed away a spider, or (accidentally or otherwise) squashed a fly? That didn’t even serve a purpose. At the very least, this kind of testing can actively improve our understanding of human biology (even though they are flies!).

But the question remains – is it morally right or wrong to take away an animal’s choice to consent to testing simply because it cannot answer your question, and there are benefits to mankind? So your question is extremely deep – and well worth spending a while thinking hard about!