For the articles, "A Plea for Chimps" by Jane Goodall, "The Ethics of Euthanasia" by Lawrence J. Schneiderman, and "A Case of Assisted Suicide" by Jack Kevorkian, each of the authors faced a situation in which human morality plays a vital role. How does one define what is moral and what is not; to be specific, is it ethical to aid in suicide or is it ethical to mistreat another living being? Whether it is a choice that is made by the person or a choice made for them the issue still stands. Although the definitions of morality are different, Goodall, Schneiderman, and Kevorkian's decisions were made based on their own individual thought process. .
In the first article, "A Plea for Chimps", the author Jane Goodall presented the article to ask for a "more humane treatment of chimpanzees used for medical research." (Goodall 559). As Goodall explained in the article, chimps are used in many medical experiments in search for cures and vaccines for a variety of human diseases because they share 99 percent of their genetic material with humans. Yet these biomedical research laboratories do not afford these animals the very basic living conditions and treatment falls under the category of animal cruelty. "Young chimpanzees, 3 or 4 years old, were crammed, two together, into tiny cages measuring 22 inches by 22 inches and only 24 inches high. They could hardly turn around. Not yet part of any experiment, they had been confined in these cages for more than three months. The chimps had each other for comfort, but they would not remain together for long. Once they are infected, probably .
with hepatitis, they will be separated and placed in another cage. And there they will remain, living in conditions of severe sensory deprivation, for the next several years. During that time, they will become insane." (Goodall 560-561) These actions now turn towards the question of morality; is it moral to be treating the chimps this way when it is believed highly unethical to treat a human in the same way? Goodall believes that the least the researchers can do is to improve the quality of life for the chimps and not slowly push them to their death.
