Animal testing is the use of different animals for scientific, medical research, and veterinary schooling purposes. Animal research that started in the eightieth and ninetieth century has become customary today. The public views diverge greatly whether animal experimentation leads to medical breakthroughs or such progress is achievable by other means. The views depend on one’s own ethical and moral values and standards. Although many people believe that animal experimentation should be carried out and without animal experimentation science would grind to a stop and be set back centuries. Scientist said at a time that there was tremendous pressure to find treatment for diseases, such as aids, cancer, and strokes, but where are the cures if animal …show more content…
research is so helpful? Animal experimentation should be abolished because it is a very cruel and dishonest method of testing, it is unnecessary, unreliable, and may lead to the experimenters becoming inhumane. Experimenting on animals is very cruel and immoral. Animals have rights just like humans and they should get to choose the way they live. We as humans should provide this right to animals. Animal rights are usually ignored just because of their lack of ability to reason. This inability should not be a factor that justifies animal tests. If a human being is ill or disabled they are still provided with their rights. In addition, just as it is morally wrong to subject humans to pain it is wrong to do it to animals. Animals have been used in research for more than two-thousand years. When live animals are used, this practice is called vivisection. A word that originally meant cutting, or performing surgery on a living animal (Nancy Day 13). Animals do feel pain. It is just that they are ignored because animals do not have a voice and that they cannot reason. There is also research that proves that mice and other animals do experience various intensities of pain and many of the emotions that are considered unique to humans. They also respond to pain similarly to humans such as abnormal postures, vocalizations, aggression, and physical responses. Discomfort of mice is pretty evident by the facial expressions (expressions very similar to humans) when they are subjected to pain (P. Michael Conn). Pain is an intangible quantity and therefore it cannot be observed by the experimenters. Scientist say they do not occur any pain, but they are the ones to provide the numbers. There is no outside source and wonder if they are accurately providing the numbers and types of experiments they conduct. Animals have a right to live free from humans as pets, abuse, and exploitation. They are capable of suffering and the belief that they should be treated different, because of their species is wrong. In addition, animal experimentation is unnecessary because today alternatives exist. Alternative methods such as artificial skin and can save thousands of rabbits from skin corrosion and irritation tests. There has been research that proves that alternatives can be more accurate than animal tests and instead of reducing the animals required in animal tests, those methods can render the animal tests as unnecessary. Alternative methods are based on experiments on human cells carried out in vitro (i.e. test tubes), and on computer models (Peta.org par. 2). Animal testing also is very unreliable due to several reasons.
Firstly, the way animals and humans react towards a drug can be drastically different, therefore, what applies to an animal might not apply to the human situation. Most animal testing is useless because they differ from humans in body and mind, and many are undertaken simply out of curiosity. Experiments are repeated many times by many different scientist. Many animals die because the same experiments are being performed over and over (P. Michael Conn). There was a case when a new mascara called Lash Lure to darken lashes was used and caused an irritation to the women and she went blind. Even though it did not require to be tested on animals they took rabbits to test these products on. Rabbit’s eyes differ from the human eyes in several ways, including the fact that rabbits have a third membrane that trap compounds. The only reason people are under the mistaken belief that animal experiments help humans is because the media, experimenters, universities and lobbying groups overstate the potential of animal experiments to lead to new cures and the role they have played in past medical advances (Nancy Day 32-35). There are variables that are both a reason for and a reason against animal experimentation. On the plus side animals are often less complex. They can be used in great numbers because of their diet and environment. On the negative side animals are living beings. They are unable to react and act the same as a human, and animals cannot communicate their feelings. There are side effects such as headaches, nausea, and depression and nearly undetectable in animals (Nancy Day
17-18). Animal experimentation has still been in use today as it was over a century ago. Both men and women of good hearts that are on both side of the issue, and believe animals are crucial in research. Why aren’t humans used in research? That is because human experimentation would require legal fees, the consent of participants and the government, and would involve additional costs such as human insurance in case an accident occurs (The Animal Experimentation Debate 121). How can we allow animal experimentation just to satisfy corporate greed? Many of the alternatives are in the research and development phase. There are computer programs to stimulate the behavior of a living systems. They are sometimes called silico which is silicon chips that make up computing systems. This program can model human anatomical and physiological system with precision. Scientific and biomedical researchers should allocate more time and money to develop and advance those. It was stated that alternatives will provide a faster, more efficient and cheaper method compared to the basic animal testing. (The Animal Experimentation Debate 102-103). Besides, the alternatives will avoid the hassle that is required in animal tests where results need to be extrapolated to consider the species disparities. These alternatives should be adopted because along with saving millions of animal’s lives it’s a more humane method of experimenting and involve less moral and ethical implications. Animal researchers argue that advances in medicine can only be achieved by animal testing and toxicity tests have to be carried out on animals before they are tested on humans. On one side of this heated debate corporations are spending millions of dollars to make medicines and a ban on animal experimentation will cause them to suffer from huge losses. On the other side, NGO’s are also funding millions of dollars to prevent animal experimentation. Government in many parts of the world does try and intervene and mediate this controversy by passing laws that prevent the cruel behavior of animal experimenters towards animals. Despite the benefits of animal experimentation, animal tests must be completely abolished. This is because animal tests are a very cruel and immoral way of testing the affectivity of a drug. The assumption that what applies to the animals can be applicable to the humans if very misleading and therefore animal testing is an unreliable method. The knowledge and skills that humans have should be used to the benefit of animals by developing alternative techniques to test drugs that do not require animal subjects. There is already much success in the alternative methods. Also, we should realize that animal experimentation is leading the humans to become more and more inhumane.
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
Animals are used as a part of experimentations in order to accomplish new openings. A few individuals think that it is satisfactory, while others contend that it is not moral to sacrifice animals for science. Estimated, that fifty to one hundred million of animals are used for tests in the world. Despite the significance of experiments, the quantity of animals and purpose of research are not under any control. Animals testing should be banned under a few circumstances; we can enhance the situation by using alternative ways such as replacement, reduction, and refinement according to International Society for Applied Ethology.
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.
When it comes to feeling like pain, hunger, and thirst, “a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy” (Monagle 1). In other words, animals feel pleasure and pain in much the same way as humans. And while this is a major focus of the fight against animal experimentation, this is extremely helpful to the medical testing community. Because of this, we are able to very effectively see how animals react when given said drug. Effects like aggressive or hostile behavior, changes in mood, insomnia, involuntary tics and twitching, itching, and nervousness are very common when it comes to drug use. Consequently, we have to be able to use animal testing to make sure we don’t give humans these drugs without them knowing of these possible side
Animals and humans have different genes meaning that the products being used are going to have different effects on different species (Burrell). After a drug has been tested on a animal, the drug still has to go through a human trial. Which means that the drug they just spent all that time testing on the animal, still needs to be tested on a human to actually make it purchasable. Sadly, “92% of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they are too dangerous or don’t work” (“11 Facts”). Meaning that most of the drugs used on animals, actually are not benefiting humans. A few of the drugs passed from animals, were detrimental to humans. For example, a arthritis drug tested on mice, seemed to protect their hearts, but when used on humans, it was the cause of heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths (“12 Pros and Cons”). Even when some drugs are passed, they show some side effects that were not shown during the test trial. Animals have been used to help the “war on cancer”, but the tests haven’t transferred from humans to animals. The former head of the National Cancer Institute, Richard Klausner, has stated, “The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades and it simply didn’t work in humans” (“Animal Testing”). Meaning that they have learned the ways of curing mice with
Is animal testing really worth taking away animal’s valuable lives? No, I think it’s wrong, inhumane, and cruel. Animals have feelings like humans do and they should be treated with respect even though they are just animals.When animals are tested over time they live in cruel and harsh conditions. They are tied up and changed to their cages or devices they are being tested on. Almost all tests fail in humans and it is not worth sacrificing an animals life.Think about all the things animals have to go through all the harsh and cruel treatment.They are put in conditions where they are not allowed to eat or drink and move around. Is it really worth killing an animals for eyeliner that will never hit the market or for drugs that all fail in humans. So here are some of the reasons I think we should ban all animal testing.
Animal testing is an immoral, heinous, atrocious act. One should never put an animal before his own life; we are all here on earth due to some strand of evolution or the other, making prejudice and other discriminations (man or not) obsolete and meaningless. Those who would think themselves above another creature are each failures in their own individual way. The rights of animals cannot be questioned, it is an inalienable fact that most do not understand, when given thought that is free of bias and the plague of arrogance, as Arthur Schopenhauer once said: “The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.” In a society as unquestionably advanced as man, a society in which even the consumption of meat is an indulgence and in no way necessary, the duty of treating all life with anything more than a central nervous system is nothing less than a law.
Millions of animals are used to test consumer products, but they also become victims to experiments for medical research. In The Ethics of Animal Research (2007) both authors state that there have been many medical advances with the development of medicines and treatments as a result of research conducted on animals (para 1). These medical i...
Every year about 100 million animals suffer through being poisoned, shocked, and burned for unsuccessful medical research. Some may believe that animal testing is a crucial part to medical research and should be used more frequently. Others believe the pain and suffering inflicted upon the animals is morally wrong and should not be done, no matter what benefits come from it.
“Over 1 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in U.S. labs” according to DoSomething.org. And although these animals may be considered protected under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) they are still able to be tortured and mistreated in labs. On top of all this, there is absolutely no guarantee that results and data collected from these procedures are accurate. Our anatomic builds are similar in ways but not at all interchangeable. Even though it has saved lives, animal experimentation should be banned because it is not a guarantee that these procedures are done pain free and humans and animals react differently to the medicines and chemicals used.
Animal testing is not reliable according to “Cruelty free International” 95% of drugs fail in human trail because of various reasons such as safety reasons and maybe because they do not work. Researchers use dogs, cats and many other animals for testing but that does not provide any evidence that drug will be safe for human use. In article “Arguments against Animal Testing” states that a recent study found using mice and
The deployment of animals for medical research has brought heated debates from both the proponents and opponents each holding to their views in a tight manner. Those who are in support of animal research argue that it has been constituting a vital element in the advancement of medical sciences throughout the world providing insights to various diseases, which have helped in the discovery and development of various medicines that have brought an improvement in the qualify of living of people. Such discoveries have gone so deep that but for them many would have died a premature death because no cure would have been found for the diseases that they were otherwise suffering. On the other hand, animal lovers and animal right extremists hold to the view that animal experimentation is not only necessary but also Cruel. Human kind is subjecting them to such cruelties because they are helpless and even assuming such experiments do bring in benefits, the inhuman treatment meted out to them is simply not worth such benefits. They would like measures, including enactment of legislations to put an end to using animals by the name of research. This paper takes the view there are merits in either of the arguments and takes the stand a balanced approach needs to be taken on the issue so that both the medical science does not suffer, and the animal lovers are pacified, even if not totally satisfied. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: The next section discusses both the sides by taking account the view of scholars and practitioners and the subsequent section concludes the paper by drawing vital points from the previous section to justify the stand taken in this paper....
Every year, millions of animals experience painful, suffering and death due to results of scientific research as the effects of drugs, medical procedures, food additives, cosmetics and other chemical products. Basically, animal experimentation has played a dominant role in leading with new findings and human advantages. Animal research has had a main function in many scientific and medical advances in the past decade and is helping in the understanding of several diseases. While most people believe than animal testing is necessary, others are worried about the excessive suffering of this innocent’s creatures. The balance between the rights of animals and their use in medical research is a delicate issue with huge societal assumptions. Nowadays people are trying to understand and take in consideration these social implications based in animals rights. Even though, many people tend to disregard animals that have suffered permanent damage during experimentation time. Many people try to misunderstand the nature of life that animals just have, and are unable to consider the actual laboratory procedures and techniques that these creatures tend to be submitted. Animal experimentation must be excluded because it is an inhumane way of treat animals, it is unethical, and exist safer ways to test products without painful test.
For many years now, animals have been used for testing and experimentation. Many organizations like PETA and the ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation) strongly oppose the topic of animals being experimented on. Many people are against animal testing as a whole because not only does it harm animals, but many times they may be killed. There have been many countless years and protests against testing, and they deserved to be heard and listened to. People have begun to realize that not only does animal testing harm and kill animals every year; it has been pretty much useless.
There is always a special relationship between humans and animals, and some people will consider and treat their home animals as a part of their family members. In the recent decade, the animal experimentation plays a very significant role for biomedical research. Those animal experimentation allows scientists to do medical research on animals to develop new drugs for saving human life and preventing human suffering from diseases, and it also helps to ensure the safety of the drugs. Since some animal’s biological systems have a remarkable similarity with humans, it is tough to find an effective replacement for animal research. Although most of animal researches bring humans benefit, some people argue that animal research is torturing animals and violating animal rights and it should be banned. In fact, most of the alternative cannot provide accurate and correct information for the scientists, so animals should be allow use in scientific research.