But, many of these objections, although perhaps suggestive, are inadequately developed and, quite frankly, scientifically uninformed. However, there are legitimate scientific questions about the validity of animal experimentation which merit serious consideration by both sides of this debate. A careful assessment of scientific and methodological principles indicates that the claims about the enormous benefits of animal research claims made in both public policy statements designed for public consumption and in scientific texts are exaggerated. Specifically, there is reason to question the appropriateness of extrapolating the results of animal experimentation to humans. Doubts about the grand claims made on behalf of experimentation emerge from a careful examination of evolutionary biology.
Evolutionary theory is no mere adjunct to biology.
Rather, it is at the center of contemporary biology. Of special importance to the current inquiry, evolutionary theory helps us understand the biological significance of speciation. Since modern physiology and biomedicine assume we can legitimately extrapolate laboratory findings in non-human animals to humans, then a proper understanding of the nature of species and species' differences will be central to a scientific evaluation of these practices. In the popular debates about animal experimentation these deeper scientific questions are not raised at all, or are, at most, discussed only superficially. Neither the critics nor the defenders of these practices tend to pursue these arguments as deeply as they should.