A few days ago Pope Francis released his new encyclical called “Laudato Si'”. Since I heard that is focuses on the environment I went to see if there is anything about animal testing, and this is what I’ve found:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that experimentation on animals is morally acceptable only “if it remains within reasonable limits [and] contributes to caring for or saving human lives”. The Catechism firmly states that human power has limits and that “it is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly”. All such use and experimentation “requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.”
– Pope Francis, LAUDATO SI’
Replacing the quote from “experimentation on animals” to the classic example of “owning a knife”:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that experimentation on animals owning a knife is morally acceptable only “if it remains within reasonable limits [and] contributes to caring for or saving human lives”. The Catechism firmly states that human power has limits and that “it is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly”. All such use and experimentation “requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.”
So owning a knife is acceptable but what you do with it is the issue. You can either use it to save other lives like cutting a bandage or cutting a piece of cake … or you can use it to kill or torture other beings for no reason.
My interpretation of this quote is that animal experimentation is only acceptable when needed and shouldn’t cause pain or death to animals.
Do you know of any animal experimentation that didn’t cause pain or death to animals? ❓ I don’t.
So my conclusion is that if everyone had to use my interpretation of this quote, the rate of animal testing would minimise if not disappear.
However that’s only wishful thinking as I am pretty sure that corporations wouldn’t care what the Pope says in his encyclical about the environment let alone stop animal testing. They would only care if we do something about it like banning their products from our shopping list. 😉
So what’s your interpretation of this quote? Do you think the Pope / Catholic Church is against or in favor of animal testing?