Of Mice and Primates

Rebecca Walker is a professor of philosophy and of social medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work in philosophy of medicine addresses animal ethics, health justice, genomic ethics, and bioethics theories and concepts. She engages both philosophical and social science methodologies and she has published widely in prominent bioethics, science, philosophy, and medicine journals. Her co-edited books include Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems (2007); Understanding Health Inequalities and Justice (2016); and the two volume Social Medicine Reader (2019).

In Of Mice and Primates, Walker (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) argues for a less-employed virtue ethics approach to questions of medical and other scientific research using animals. ..In chapters that systematically present cases regarding researcher conduct that promotes both human and animal flourishing, as well as relationships between humans and animals, compassion, and justice, Walker skillfully evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various ethical arguments. Readers will feel well served by this fresh, vital, and honest work. ..Essential.

• Chapter 1: Why (not) virtue ethics? Chapter 2: Rights and Welfare: A Case Study Chapter 3: Animal Flourishing and the Lab Chapter 4: Friendship, Human-Animal Bonds, and Partiality in the Lab Chapter 5: Virtue, Vice, and the Other Animals: Compassion Chapter 6: Justice and Animal Research Oversight Chapter 7: Intellectual Virtues for Animal Science Chapter 8: Limitations and Further Thoughts on Moral Status