On Due Recognition of Animals Used in Research

The experimental laboratory can be a horror house for rats, monkeys, and other nonhuman animals. Yet their use in this setting is usually reported in a routine manner in publications that discuss the results. These contentions are illustrated with an analysis of the way animal evidence is presented in David J. Linden’s recent book, The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God. The article concludes with a call to science authors to acknowledge formally in their written work the ethical significance of such use of nonhuman animals.