Q: I am a medical scientist working in a research facility. Our work is to develop new medications and treatments for various diseases.
When we need to test a certain medication to see its effectiveness, side effects, etc, we use lab rats as our test specimens. We first infect the rat with the disease and then inject it with the medication to see the result. In some cases, other animals are used as well.
Recently, this began to bother me, as I realised that we are abusing and harming these creatures. However, we have to test the medications on some subject, and we obviously cannot do so on people.
What should we do?
A: Doing tests on dead animals will be permissible. If the animals are alive then it will be allowed just to the extent of a negligible amount of discomfort, and not more. (Muntakhab Nizaamul Fatawa, vol. 3, p. 408)
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)