It may come as a surprise to regular readers, but I like the modern era of science. Today, if you want to do an experiment, you actually have to consider more than just your experiment and the science you want to explore. These days, you have to consider the consequences of your experiment—unless you're a journalist, it turns out.
If you're a scientist conducting an experiment that is going to cause harm to animals or requires human participants, that experiment must be reviewed by an ethics board, which asks itself two questions. Do the ends justify the means? Are there better means by which the same ends can be achieved?
To summarize: if you are going to work with people or animals, it should be worth it, and the amount of suffering should be minimized. Every now and again, some bitter, senile old man complains about this change, saying that "things were better in the old days when we could just do the experiment," conveniently forgetting about the ruined lives. "Progress will stop," this man might yell, "while the rate of scientific advance steadily increases." To people like this, the least I can do is offer a hearty string of obscenities.
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