Ethics Of Animal Testing

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As the medical community works tirelessly to find cures for some of the world’s most deadly diseases, the use of new technology has propelled them to life-saving discoveries, allowing research and testing without actual test subjects. These cures come in the form of medications and treatments that can take years if not decades of development simply to get them ready to be tested. While some of this research is done without any test subjects, many researchers still employ a method that has been used for centuries: testing on animals. The ethics of this method has been the subject of controversy for almost as long as its use and has been a catalyst for discussion, both sides believing themselves to be right. One point in opposition of animal …show more content…

To completely eliminate all animal testing could have a detrimental effect on medical research, specifically psychology (Bennett). Without the Nobel prize winning dog salivation experiment of Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning may not be as understood as it is today (“Pavlov’s Dog”). Studying how great apes learn and communicate has been essential in revelations about our own evolution (Bennett). Losing animals as a means for medical research could mean losing future discovery and, “understanding [of] the neural, behavioral, cognitive, developmental, physiological, genetic and biological processes that contribute to human and animal health and disease” (Bennett). To certain medical communities, the benefits of animal research far outweigh the …show more content…

Going back to the cat experiments being performed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the photographs of the cat test subjects were disturbing. However, when all of the information about the testing was divulged, with revelations such as the fact that this was a test for cochlear implants and everything done to the cat test subjects has since been done to humans, the procedures being performed become more accepted. By describing procedures without context, they can sound barbaric. Hearing about an animal test subject enduring a procedure where, “a device is surgically implanted into the shoulder area. Wires are then forced into veins in the chest, and electrical impulses are sent through these wires” doesn’t seem as terrible when it is also known that this was the procedure, “to implant a pacemaker into a 14-year-old child with a heart problem”

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