The concept of animal in husbandry and impact on therapeutical choices

Session C7.4 PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE Événement(s) lié(s) : - Logic Colloquium 2015 LC 2015; Helsinki (FIN) - (2015-08-03 - 2015-08-08)Session C7.4 PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINEReification is the general position of animal breeders practising rational (also so called industrial) husbandry: the animal has to be treated well in order that production may reach an optimum. The situation is very similar to the one found in experimental premises for research: animals are treated well in order that they may produce high quality scientific results. In such a world of rationality, the affect may be considered as a deviation from “good practices”. It is obvious that treatments for recovering health and production status rely only on wellknown efficient therapeutics, e.g. resources of conventional medicine. One may consider that animals are sentient beings (Singer) and thus husbandry should be reduced as much as possible since we cannot avoid suffering of the sentient beings during their life and at the slaughterhouse. We then use the best resources available of chemotherapy and are thus inclined to prefer conventional therapies. Intermediate positions in husbandry may pretend that husbandry is a part of our culture, that we need animals for food and presence, and thus a good husbandry animal life can be the pretext for animal sacrifice at slaughterhouse (Porcher). In this situation, the farmer is open to risk: risk of killing loved animals, risk of treating his animals with drugs being untested properly for efficacy or toxicity. The non-conventional therapies (phytotherapy, homeopathy, and other alternative medicines) are then preferred. The animal concept is thus a determinant key in the choice of therapies used in animal husbandry