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Animal testing and its consequences
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Animal testing and its consequences
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Animal testing Who introduced/conducted animal testing? • Aristotle and Erasistratus experimented on animals • Galen, a Greek physician, conducted animal experiments to further the understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. • Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) was an Arab physician, who introduced the method of experimenting on animals, for testing surgical procedures before applying them to human patients. • William Harvey used animals to discover how blood circulated in the body. • Many people from different era’s, introduced anima testing for a variety of reasons/experiments. What is animal testing? Animal testing is: The method of experimentation that uses animals to benefit humans. Where does animal testing occur? It is a law
STATEMENT OF USE: “Although many key questions can still only be answered by animal studies, non-animal methods now account for 90% of medical research and include mathematical and computer models, advanced tissue and cell cultures, and scanning technology.” This information will take a great stance in my paper once more research is done about it. Animals do not need to be used to understand biomedical medicine and knowledge. They are not models for anything society taunts them to be. (76
Animal testing has gone back as far as three hundred B.C.E with the Greek physician and philosopher, Aristotle (*). Then there was Galen, a Greek physician, who studied animals in Rome and learned more about medicine, made advancements in understanding anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. To modern society, Galen is referred to as being the father of vivisection. In the twelfth century in Spain, Ibn Zuhr, an Arab physician who made use of animal experimentation that led to testing the effectiveness of surgical procedures, first on animals, and then applying the information to human patients. Though most of his testings were on goats, much of his research went into postmortem autopsies and dissections. (Hajar) (Naik)
Throughout all of human history, the pattern has remained the same—human technological and scientific progress has always involved testing on animals. Without that testing, modern medicine would be a shadow of what it is today. Many modern procedures stem directly from testing with animals. In addition, doctors and surgeons receive much of their training with the living tissues of animals. Computer simulations and other methods simply cannot compete with experience on a living being. For example, the United States Army formerly shot goats to train physician responses to gunshot wounds (Cole ...
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.
The ethics behind using animals for experiments and tests has been questioned and debated for years. Many people believe that animal experimentations can be crucial towards medical breakthroughs such as the cure for cancer, HIV/AIDS or asthma. Meanwhile others argue that animals that are used to test cosmetics such as make-up and perfumes are inhuman because is not going to help improve the human race. Animals suffer through multiple types of torture such as being forced to ingest poisonous chemicals, blinded, burned, stapled, and infected with disease viruses. Even though animal experimentation may be considered inhumane to many, animal experimentation is crucial to advancements in medical research and can lead to a better quality of life; on the other hand, animal experimentation should not be used to develop cosmetics because such experimentation is cruel and unnecessary.
The roots of animal experimentation began in the early 1600s when the world expressed in interests on the functions of animals and their uses in human life. However, it wasn’t until the incident regarding the drug thalidomide in 1960 did the government make it a requirement for drugs be tested on animals. During the incident, millions of women took the medication believing that it would be a source of relieve from morning sickness, not knowing however that it would cause irrevocable effects on their unborn children (Watson 4). Although the ruling seemed to provide a sigh of relief to some, the very idea of placing animals in strange uncomfortable environments and experiencing pain and euthanasia angered many. According to the American Anti-Vivisection Society, commonly known as AAVS, It is wrong to treat animals as objects for the purpose of scientific research, and to cause them pain and suffering (“Animal Research Is Unethical and Scientifically Unnecessary”). Although the arguments against animal experimentation seem credible, animal testing on medicines and products are necessary in order to insure the safety of human beings.
Andreas Vesalius was well known for his dissections in the 1500’s. Growing up in Brussels he was captivated by the anatomy of animals. Throughout his childhood Andreas dissected many small animals trying to uncover life’s mystery. This curiosity regarding anatomy came very naturally, due to the fact that he was born into a family of physicians. Vesalius started his formal education at the University of Louvain; then traveled to Paris to continue his studies in medicine. During his life time, Vesalius was an accomplished physician, and professor of anatomy. He also received his degree as a doctor of medicine at the age of twenty-two. Vesalius writings and teachings set the foundation of anatomy we know today, hence why he received the title; founder of modern anatomy.
The history of animal experimentation and tests, and the argument surrounding it, has an expansive and somewhat extensive history. Some of the first medical research that was conducted on living animals was done by Aelius Galenus, better known as Galen, in the second century C.E. There have been examples of animal testing in earlier dates, but Galen devoted his life to understanding science and medicine, so he is attributed to being the father of vivisection. In the twelfth century, an Arabic physician named Avenzoar introduced animal testing dissections as a means to better understand surgery before preforming the operation on a human patient. Edmund O’Meara made one of the first opposing ar...
Paralysis resulting from the cutting of the spinal cord and the urinary system in which urine passes from the kidneys to the bladder. In his observations about the heart and blood vessels, however, Galen mistakenly believed that blood was formed in the liver and was circulated throughout the body by the veins. When anatomy research stopped for many centuries, Galen's teachings remained as the most important medical authority. When human dissections were legalized in the sixteenth century, the long-held theories of Galen were overturned by the work of Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius. Vesalius, who founded modern scientific anatomy, noted obvious conflicts between what he discovered in his dissections of the human body and what Galen had described.
“Animals were used in early studies to discover how blood circulates through the body, the effect of anesthesia, and the relationship between bacteria and disease” (AMA 59). Experiments such as these seem to be outdated and actually are by today’s means, scientists now commonly study for three general purposes: (1) biomedical and behavioral research, (2) education, (3) drug and product testing (AMA 60). These three types of experiments allow scientists to gain vast amounts of knowledge about human beings.... ... middle of paper ... ...& Co.
Animals have held an important spot in many of our lives. Some people look at animals as companions and others see them as a means of experimental research and medical advancement. With the interest to gain knowledge, physicians have dissected animals. The ethics of animal testing have always been questioned because humans do not want to think of animals on the same level as humans. Incapable of our thinking and unable to speak, animals do not deserve to be tested on by products and be conducted in experiments for our scientific improvement. Experimentation on animals is cruel, unfair, and does not have enough beneficial results to consider it essential.
Ancient Greek and Roman physicians attained knowledge about the human body through anatomical investigations through animal dissections. The information learned from this was then applied to the human body. Nerves were of a particular interest, and physicians would cut into animal spinal cords at
Animals have played a major part in medical breakthroughs. Such as the development of anesthetics, which are the chemicals used to make you unconscious during an operation. . Before that surgery was little more than refined butchery. Amputations, removal of bladder stones, caesarean sections and others – were done with the conscious patient strapped to the operating table and screaming.
Through the use of the microscope and the discovery of DNA, there were many advances in anatomy and physiology throughout the twentieth century to the present time. However, the early discoveries by Erasistratus and Herophilus as well as the others created a foundation for the future scientists to base their research off of, which impacted where we are today in the field and contributed to the great advances that have been made in anatomy and physiology.
When considering the advantages and disadvantages of animal research, it is important to take into account the successes that have emerged from animal research, like the development of psychotropic medications. The use of animal research has helped some way in the development of everything from the Tuberculosis cure, to the Polio vaccine, to the treatment of AIDS (Gluck, 2003).