Volume III, Issue 1: Spring / Summer 2006

Animal ethics

Dear Editors,
I’m a new subscriber to Greater Good, and I think the magazine is excellent, filling an important need. I just wish that The Greater Good Science Center, and Greater Good itself, would include other species as well as humans in its wide embrace.

In the most recent issue (Fall/Winter 2005-06), two articles describe experiments on sentient animals that caused fear and suffering to species perfectly capable of experiencing pain and stress. In fact, in the article “Mother Nurture,” Lyssa Mudd writes of University of California, Berkeley, researcher Darlene Francis: “Working with rodents instead of kids has allowed Francis to use scientific methods that would be unthinkable when studying humans.”

These methods would be unthinkable because they would be considered cruel and abusive to children. Are they any less cruel and abusive because they are done to mice? Are the experiments described in the article by Frans de Waal—in which monkeys are shocked, and in which other monkeys starve themselves rather than shock a compatriot—ethical?  They aren’t to me, and I would have hoped that at the very least your articles would have raised the question of their morality.

I hope that in the future, Greater Good will consider extending its beautiful circle of compassion to other species.

Zoe Weil
President, International Institute
for Humane Education
Surry, ME

Appreciations and applications

Dear Editors,
I read and benefited from your research and articles in the Fall/Winter 2005-06 issue. The article “Feeling Like Partners” has been helpful to a number of my clients.

I look forward to other informative articles in the future.

Eileen Healy
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Redwood City, CA

Dear Editors,
I received my trial issue of Greater Good this morning. Thank you! The magazine could not have come at a better time. I have already used it in counseling one of my inmates.

R. Sue Pearson, Ph.D.
Senior Psychologist, Okaloosa Correctional Institution
Crestview, FL

Dear Editors, I truly enjoy your magazine; it is a great resource. Over the past several years I have been integrating mindfulness practices and emotional intelligence research into my work with students. Greater Good is an inspiration.

Mike Kuba
Director, Counseling Center
West Virginia Wesleyan College
Buckhannon, WV

 

 

 

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