We Need Animal Testing

In 2001, a 54-year-old man lay in the hospital waiting to die. After he had a massive heart attack in 1993, his life was not the same. He was forced to quit his job as a nurse to relieve some of the stress on his heart. Over the years, his condition continued to worsen. Chuck Reynolds went into the hospital in April of 2001 for an evaluation, and on June first the cardiologist told him he was not stable enough to go home. Reynolds was put on a waiting list for a heart transplant. He spent the next three months of his life in a hospital bed attached to machines while the hospital staff struggled to keep his heart beating long enough to receive the transplant. On September 13, 2001, Chuck Reynolds finally got the transplant he needed to stay alive. His surgery went well and he got to go home soon after. His wife was no longer worried about his health, and Reynolds could ride his bike again. The surgery that saved this man's life would not have been possible without animal testing and research ("Heart Transplant: A Life Saved Courtesy of Animal Research").

All the techniques and medications used in organ transplant surgeries were first used on animals. Scientists had to make sure that the procedures would be safe for a human. They knew where to cut the arteries because scientist and doctors used animals in the 1900's to determine how and where to make the cuts. The doctors knew to keep the heart cold to slow it down for the surgery because tests that was performed on animals (Heart Transplant: A Life Saved Courtesy of Animal Research). Without animal testing Chuck Reynolds and countless others would have lost their lives. Although animal testing is frowned upon, it is ethical. Animal testing is needed to ensure humans safety an...

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...l testing will be extinct, and scientists will rely mainly on computer molding, artificial skin, cell cultures and toxicogenomics to determine if a drug will be affective. These new tests use math formulas to see how the body will react. Some of them use cells in a test tube to see how the medications react with the cells. They are also using DNA chips to study how humans could react to certain drugs. All these new techniques have potential and are currently being studied (Watson 41).

However, activists may find it easier to accept animal testing if cosmetic testing is stopped. Cosmetic testing does not improve a human’s health or education so it is not ethical. The tests should have strict rules regarding the reasons the tests are being conducted. Animals should only be used for medical and educational purposes until the new ways of testing are proven accurate.