Negotiating Moral Value

A Story of Danish Research Monkeys and Their Humans

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5337755
AutoresLene Koch (University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark), M N Svendsen (0000-0002-4777-4973, University of Copenhagen)
Ano2015
Volume40
Fascículo3
Páginas368-388
Data de publicação2015-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243914553223
OpenAlexW1982057152
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas22

In 2004, twelve capuchin monkeys were moved from the labs of the Danish psychiatric hospital of Sankt Hans to a small private-owned zoo in another part of Denmark in order to be rehabilitated. These monkeys were the last nonhuman primates to be used as research animals in Danish biomedical laboratories. The normal procedure would be to kill research animals after the termination of an experiment; in this case, however, a decision was reached to close down the lab. The moral landscape had changed, and it was no longer considered acceptable to use nonhuman primates in Danish biomedicine. From being considered a biological resource serving as a model of man, the monkeys had become moral subjects with a claim to a life suiting their natural needs. Simultaneously, the monkeys became instrumental in creating moral legitimacy for the actors involved in their rescue. What we see is an instance of pathfinding in a changing moral landscape where actors negotiate nonhuman primate nature as they create new moral positions for themselves

Biology · Biomedicine · Danish · Environmental ethics · Legitimacy · Negotiation · Nonhuman primate · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Race, Genetics, and Society