I think it's good that you can have empathy for the animal but you could also sympathize with the people (inc children) that may someday have such a heart as their only option.
Everybody wants to move beyond animals, a lot of research is being done on Organs on a Chip etc, but until then, we have animals. See them like the nuclear powerplants that we use instead of coal, until we can finally move to fully renewable energy.
Sometime I ask myself, how many mice or pigs would I kill to save my child? And my answer is: As many as it takes.
Personally I'd probably be the same. But this scenario would probably demolish my objectivity so completely that I would no longer be remotely able to pick right from wrong. If my kid was abused I would probably want cruel and unusual punishment instituted, if my kid was groomed online I would probably want to abolish all encryption or privacy laws standing in the way of finding the person doing it, etc.
That said, I still think it would be reasonable to want to know that they weren't in any agony. And there would probably be a point where I would think something is deeply wrong if a hundred intelligent creatures all suffered terribly just so that one person can live.
But in the end I'd probably go along with it, think we have way too much power for one species and donate or do everything I could to try make it right, and fail.
Everybody wants to move beyond animals, a lot of research is being done on Organs on a Chip etc, but until then, we have animals. See them like the nuclear powerplants that we use instead of coal, until we can finally move to fully renewable energy.
Sometime I ask myself, how many mice or pigs would I kill to save my child? And my answer is: As many as it takes.