Tom Regan

About the author: Tom Regan is a professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and has written a number of books on the subject of animal rights including Defending Animal Rights and The Animal Rights Debate from which this viewpoint is taken.

Humans do not have the right to use animals for their own ends; therefore, animals should not be used for scientific experimentation. Some critics of this view raise questions about the scope of animal rights, such as whether they would have the right to vote. These critics believe that since animals cannot respect our rights, we should not grant rights to them. In fact, all animals have the right to be treated with respect. Like children, they do not have to vote or respect another's rights to have rights themselves. To...