Animal Experimentation Essay

Animal experimentation is contentious issue in today’s society that, whether it continue or should stop. Many animals such as monkey undergo painful suffering or even death as a result of scientific research for the sake of humans’ health. Among the animals monkeys are the main victims of the scientists’ experiments because of their human-like characteristics and physical process to humans. Monkeys’ similarities allow the scientists to test effectiveness of the new discovered drugs, food additives, and chemical and even cosmetics products. Although, such medical experimentations had helped scientists to produce vaccines, and medicines that are necessary for elimination of some deceases, but the test had negative medical effect on monkeys.

Such experimentations enabled scientists to come up with concrete solutions and provide treatments and to understand if the new drugs produce adverse effects in monkey. For instance, polio vaccine was first tested on monkey and it has helped scientist to treat humans suffering or dying from poliomyelitis deceases. Despite the advantages of such medical experimentations on monkey, animal rights activists believe that any kind of drugs test on animal like monkey should be stopped. Philosophers like Tom Regan in “The Case for Animals Rights” believe that animals should have fundamental rights as humans, and also be protected from unnecessary humans’ aggressive actions. In addition, Peter Singer confirms Tom Regan’s standpoints about animals’ rights and believes that both humans and animals should have the same principles of rights. Regan stresses that unless humans’ mentality to accept that animals are important and they are aware of what happen in the world to them humans will continue to disrespect them and eat, use in science, hunt, and exploit in different ways. Regan’s ideology is that even though animals have “inherent values” which lack abilities that humans do, but their life is important and they can feel the pains. Regan illustrates that humans have biological, individual, and social needs and these needs should not penetrate into animals’ life. He believes that

Such medical experimentations on monkeys created severe health problems and infected wounds, bones sticking, chewed-off fingers and toes as well as even resulted to death. For instance, at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, “monkeys were forced and even given electric shocks to run on a treadmill” (Owen 45). Such harsh and unethical human actions and abuse of monkeys for humans’ life betterment are unjustifiable as Regan states "fundamental wrong is the system that allows us to view animals as our resources, here for us--to be eaten, or surgically manipulated, or exploited for sport or money” (Lehman Hugh). Scientists do monkeys’ experiments in lab because of their large supply available and other economic advantages such as low cost. The economic advantages of monkeys enabled scientists to keep them for long period in the lab and use them many times for drug tests. Unavailability of a global comprehensive principle to deal with animal experiments such as medical research on monkeys allowed scientists to put the life of them at risk and the monkeys’ generation at destruction. Also such medical experiments on monkeys increased potential risk of infecting other monkeys and animals the humans’ deceases. Additionally, Many of the researches have done on monkeys do not apply to humans, because they have had adverse effects on humans. The side-effect on humans implies that while humans and