That is definitely a point that is made by modern ethics and is widely supported, but it’s not necessarily one that should be taken for granted. Q in Star Trek TNG treated us like this, and it’s a serious topic of debate whether we ended up better as a race as a result of his influences.

I think that’s the crux of the debate for me: Are we treating rats as well as our learnings about them are capable of supporting? Would I trust aliens to treat me with better dignity than we’ve historically treated our own ‘lesser’ species, if it’ll cure cancer?

Do we honor their social and thermal preferences? Do we design minimal experimentation and experiment judiciously? Do we monitor their pain levels using whatever means available and terminate experiments, and rats, early and painlessly — rather than force them to endure suffering for the sake of completionism?

We absolutely should want alien experimenters to treat us like rats in experiments, because we should be treating rats with the maximum respect and dignity possible to us. We certainly can’t stop motivated aliens, but we can show them by example that we treat lesser species with dignity, and maybe they’ll do the same to us.

Are we treating rats with the most dignity and respect possible? If not, then we deserve no better from aliens.

This is why it’s important to me to consider the ethics of treatment of rats. Not to end all animal testing, but to ensure that we, with our big smart brains, are able to find it in ourselves to treat well those beings we view as lesser. It sounds ridiculous to discuss it in terms of aliens, but that’s what we are to rats, and that viewpoint makes it a lot less ridiculous to consider.

ps. I would absolutely turn myself over to alien science if the need was great enough, especially if my quality of life was heading downhill, but only if I knew it would benefit the rest of you.

There was a Voyager episode where an alien species using stealth tech was performing various medical experiments on the Voyager crew to further their treatment of various ailments. Suffice to say that when the Voyager crew uncovered the alien experiments, they were not agreeable to continue. In fact, Captain Janeway was willing to destroy Voyager to stop the experimentation. And the lead alien scientist made the same pitch to Janeway about how the experiments would help many others. Janeway rejected the argument.

> I would absolutely turn myself over to alien science if the need was great enough, especially if my quality of life was heading downhill, but only if I knew it would benefit the rest of you.

That's noble of you, but I'd rather the aliens left us alone if it was between that and experimenting on us for their (or our) own good. No thanks.