Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Should ànimals be used in research
Should ànimals be used in research
Benefits of animal testing
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Should ànimals be used in research
Animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments. As a matter of fact, the California Biomedical Research Associations states that all of the medical breakthroughs in the past 100 years came from animal research. Approximately 26 million animals are used every year in the United States for medical purposes. Animals are used to develop medical treatments, check the safety of products meant for human use, and other biomedical, commercial, and health care uses. Without animal testing, scientists wouldn’t be as far as they are in medicine today. To begin, animal testing has helped scientists come closer to finding treatments and cures for diseases. First of all, animal testing has led to the discovery of insulin, a tool used for people with diabetes. “Experiments in which dogs had their pancreases removed led directly to the discovery of insulin, critical to saving
First, animals used for research are checked regularly by trained people. “Animal research has been regulated by the Federal Animal Welfare Act since 1966. As well as stipulating minimum housing standards for research animals (enclosure size, temperature, access to clean food and water, and others), the AWA also requires regular inspections by veterinarians” (Source E). Animals are protected by special laws, stating that their treatment should be regulated. In addition, animals are regularly checked by veterinarians for mistreatment. Finally, despite animal testing benefiting humans, it also benefits the animals that are being tested. “If vaccines were not tested on animals, millions of animals would have died from rabies, distemper, feline leukemia, infectious hepatitis virus, tetanus, anthrax, and canine parvo virus” (Source E). If it weren’t for animal testing, many animals would have died from these diseases, as well as
Without animal research, cures for such diseases as typhoid, diphtheria, and polio might never have existed. Without animal research, the development of antibiotics and insulin would have been delayed. Without animal research, many human beings would now be dead. However, because of animal testing, 200,000 dogs, 50,000 cats, 60,000 primates, 1.5 million hamsters, and uncounted millions of rats and mice are experimented upon and die each year, as living fodder for the great human scientific machine. Some would say that animal research is an integral part of progress; unfortunately, this is often true. On the whole, animal testing is a necessary evil that should be reduced and eliminated whenever possible.
The information that animals have provided scientists over the past decades has changed society, and is still changing society for the better. Millions of lives have been saved with the use of animal testing and many more will be saved with continued research. However, there are many who dismiss this monumental achievement completely and oppose the use of animals in laboratory research. Though many find this practice to be
Over 100 Million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned and abused in testing Labs every year. Animals are used to test the safety of products, advance scientific research, and develop models to study disease and to develop new medical treatments all for the sake of mankind. Animals should not be used for scientific research because animal testing is inhumane, other testing methods now exist, and animals are very different from human beings.
Animal testing is important to ensure the safety of a variety of products, specifically pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical devices used for surgery and other treatments. It has also been used throughout history for various purposes. Once an unregulated practice, today there are laws, regulations, and requirements associated with the ethical use of animal models. In the United States, animal studies are now required before moving on to clinical trials. Legalities aside, controversy still arises between scientists, and public opinion can vary from unconcerned to extreme. The practice of vaccination is an important part of maintaining public health, and it has proven to be beneficial to both humans and animals. In regard to vaccine development, animal testing during the pre-clinical stage seems to be a necessary part of the process. The growth of technology may provide us with potential alternatives to animal testing, and the search for such alternatives is of ethical importance.
The first pro to animal testing is that it has helped us create lifesaving cures and treatments. The California Biomedical Research Association released a statement saying almost every single medical breakthrough has resulted in the direct use of animals in the last 100 years. Can you believe this? Taking out dogs pancreases helped us discover insulin, chimpanzees helped us get a vaccine for Hepatitis B, and even the polio vaccine was tested on animals. Animal testing has also helped us treat and understand conditions like brain injury, breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, childhood leukemia, tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis, malaria, and many others. It even helped us develop anesthetics, pacemakers, and cardiac value substitutes. Almost every cure for any condition is due to animal testing. Without animal testing, we may not have been able to find many of these cures and find cures for other conditions in the future.
According to the California Biomedical Research Association, almost every medical advancement in the last 100 years is a direct result of animal testing and research. The use of animals has become standard procedure in a wide range of testing and experimentation, including product toxicity testing, biomedical and veterinary experiments, drug development and testing, and education. Major advancements in treating and understanding chronic conditions such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, malaria, and tuberculosis, have been achieved due to animal research. Also, the development of pacemakers, cardiac valve substitutes, and anesthetics are also direct results of the testing and observation of animals. On the other hand, many people believe that animal testing is cruel and inhumane. In many laboratories animals are subjected to force feeding, food and water deprivation, physical restraints, and infliction of pain. Because the animals cannot protect themselves, many people argue that exploiting animals to better the lives of humans is wrong and should not be permitted.
Animal testing began when William Harvey used animals 400 years ago to find out how blood circulated through the body. The "modern" era of animal research however started about 150 years ago with the rise of physiology as a science. It was very different back then. There were no anesthetics or effective painkillers, so the animals suffered a great deal, as did patients. Scientists learned that putting animals, or humans through that type of torture was inhumane. Consider having to have a leg amputated, which was not uncommon in those days due to the fact that infections got very severe without the use of antibiotics, without even so much as an anesthetic to control the pain. Now the treatment is there to help the pain, so neither human nor animal has to go through the excess undue strain. Through all the new medical technology still there will be people who disagree with animal testing. Animal testing provides many benefits that looked over most of the time. One of the most common questions is, “why are animals used in research?” The answer to that question can be broken down into three separate categories.
Every year thousands of animals are euthanized due to animal testing such as cosmetic testing, medical testing, and dissection. (A Critical Look at Animal Experimentation) (Types of Animal Testing) Some of the things we use every day such as; make up, soap, furniture polish, and varieties of cleaning supplies, are tested on rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, and other animals. (Animal Testing) Cosmetic testing is used to test a product and its ingredients, medical testing finds cures for different illnesses; and dissection is used to help high school students in science classes have a better understanding of the class or students undergoing the medical field in college. (Animal Experimentation) Animal testing is not required by law; it is only used to protect companies from consumer lawsuits, provided new research for diseases, and provide a visual learning experiment for students. (A Critical Look at Animal Experimentation) It has been proven that there are more reliable and less expensive alternatives to animal testing, such as; computer models and cell and tissue tests. Animal experimentation should be eliminated because it is an inhumane method for testing purposes.
Animal testing has been used for developing and researching cures for medical conditions. For example, the polio vaccine, chemotherapy for cancer, insulin treatment for diabetes, organ transplants and blood transfusions are just some of the important advances that have come from research on animals (“Animal Testing”). Consuming animals for research benefits in developing various treatments and also benefits in discovery better methods for cures. According to the article “Animal Testing”, it says that the underlying rationale for the use of animal testing is that living organisms provide interactive, dynamic systems that scientists can observe and manipulate in order to understand normal and pathological functioning as well as the effectiveness of medical interventions. It relies on the physiological and anatomical similarities between humans and other animals (MacClellan, Joel). Meaning that animals have the same body components and features as humans and is the best thing to research on to better understand the human development. Even though several argue that animal testing is harming the animals, one has to think back to all the benefits that has come from it. There may be a little remorse for endangering animal lives, but realizing how far medicine has come makes it worth the while.
Besides, “Animal research has led to vaccines against diptheria, rabies, tuberculosis, polio, measles, mumps, cholera, whooping cough, and rubella. It has meant eradication of smallpox, effective treatment for diabetes and control of infection with powerful antibiotics. Cardiac pacemaker, microsurgery to reattach severed limbs, and heart, kidney, lung, liver and other transplants are all possible because of animal research”(O’Neil 210). In short, animal testing saves lives. Animal testing helps find causes, and cures, of diseases, genetic defects, birth defects, and abnormalities.
Testing on the animals is conducted inside universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, farms, defense establishments and commercial facilities that provide animal-testing services to industry. Some of the tests that researchers do on the animals are biomedical research, transplantation, drug testing and toxicology testing, cosmetics and other animal testing that are used for directional research, breeding and defense research. Organizations like PETA and BUVA think it is not a necessity for this testing. They think it is cruel, poor scientific practice, poorly regulated and that animals used for experimentation have an intrinsic right not to be used for experimentation. Many Americans don’t agree with testing on animals.
Hundreds of millions of animals die every year from animal testing in the United States. Innocent animals are used everyday in laboratories for biology advancements, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetic testing. They are used to provide information to make better products that are safe for human use. Although animal experimentation has some benefits, the negatives outweigh the positives. Animal testing is killing off innocent beings for the possible human benefit, and with modern technology, there are alternative ways to test products that leave animals unharmed.
Animal testing hasn’t been beneficiary towards any scientific breakthrough or discovery. Elias Zourhini says, “Animal testing has been useless” he is one of the main people who are strongly making a push to try and stop animal testing as a whole. “There have been thousands of dead and injured animals in the past years or so and there has been any reward or safety ensured because of these animals. Animals have been being used for testing for many years now, and especially now, the number of animals that are being used to be experimented on are extremely high. However, you may not know that laboratories aren’t required to publish how many animals they used or how many experiments conducted. Maybe that would help to find out especially what animals need to be strongly protected against testing. “Every laboratory should publish an annual statement setting forth plainly the number and kind of experiments and the methods of conducting them” (Gould qd. in Leffingwell 211). This would help many things and especially organizations that are protesting, to give reasons and facts about testing. Animals are used and then unaccounted for. Truly, you may never know h...
Using animal testing we are able to figure out if a product or vaccine is safe for people to use. If it was not for the animals the only way we would be able to tell if it was safe would be to test it on ourselves. Not many people would want to try out a new drug that could cure a disease because of the side effects or even possible death from it and that is where animal testing comes in. Scientists do not make animals just take the pain if they think it will be painful for them. They will give the animal painkillers to relieve the pain if it is evolved. Scientists will also test it on another alternative if possible before testing it on the
A large issue is animal testing. “More than 25 million vertebrate animals are used in testing in the United States each year. When invertebrate animals are thrown into the mix, the estimated number rises to as high as 100 million.”(dosomething) The laboratory testing of animals is important to biomedical research, product safety testing, and education. Biomedical researchers use animals to extend their understanding of the workings of the body and the processes of disease and health, and to develop new vaccines and treatments for various diseases for humans and other animals. However, the morality, the necessity, or the validity of the studies are questionable. Thousands of animals are helplessly killed every year that animal testing is being conducted. “Ninety-four percent of animal testing is done to determine the safety of cosmetics and household products leaving only 6% for medical research” (about my planet). This can cause harm to the animals and may in turn be fatal. It is not fair nor is it humane to conduct experiments on animals to make sure a product or procedure is safe for us. There are no reasons to regard an animal’s life as if it is insignificant in contrast to a human life. During the testing, animals may be force fed or put in restraints in order for the scientists to get the product into their systems. Ani...