RE: Insect Studies: Do Researchers Have an Obligation to Their Subjects?

The way they die it looks pretty obvious too that they feel pain

Yes! But that's not good enough for science. In order to be persuasive, in order to convince at least a few people to change behavior, I have to prove my case. I always acted as though they feel pain. My kids (middle-aged!)are upset with the whole ant thing. That's the ethic in our house. They know I can't live with them, but they don't like to think about the killing.

I think it's generally painful for everything to exist on this planet in some capacity.

Besides being a valid philosophical point, I remember something Darwin said (not exactly). He mused about the cruelty of a divine plan--if there is such a plan--that allows parasitic wasps to exist, to build their nests inside another living being. Darwin obviously believed in insect pain :(

Thanks for the thoughtful comment.