[s1artibartfast]

The the answer in the science and medical communities is Almost Never "they're just mice, who cares"

It is rather that this is an important experiment that can't be done any other way and can have large benefit for humans

[mindcrime]

The the answer in the science and medical communities is Almost Never "they're just mice, who cares"

That's fair. My comment above was maybe overly glib in that sense. But I was just trying to capture the general spirit of the thing, not write an essay, due to limits of time, interest, and knowledge on my part.

[taylorius]

It's funny how this cost benefit calculation is considered valid when applied to research on mice, but any such calculation used to try to justify research on humans would give a "divide by 0" error. I think there's an inconsistency there somewhere.

[klipt]

But there absolutely are clinical trials on humans. It's just the humans generally have to volunteer.

[mental1896]

"it can't be done any other way" strikes me as pretty thin. Whereas we may not be able to conceive of another way at this point in time, it does no good to imagine that this condition will continue in perpetuity.

[s1artibartfast]

If you feel that the statement needs to be future proofed, feel free to add "at this time" when you read it.

I think the point still stands with this condition and will for the foreseeable future.

[comrh]

Like the bleeding of horseshoe crabs for LAL it's always reevaluated based on current technology.