So the next big question is, isn’t animal testing essential? Doesn’t it cure disease and save human lives? Well the answer is no. Animal testing is unreliable, expensive, time consuming, and most of all it’s not necessary. Animals are not good models for humans. They are allergic to certain basic compounds that are fine for humans, like Paracetamol (“used to treat many conditions such as headache, muscle aches, arthritis, backache, toothaches, colds, fevers, and relieves pain in mild arthritis” (Paracetamol), and vice versa. Drugs that have passed animal trials have then gone on to kill humans. The alternatives are better. Human tissue tests, computer models, population studies, and many more provide cheaper, faster, and more reliable results. Replacements have even been developed to better replicate the reaction of the human eye than animal experiments, nut scientists still don’t use it, and governments still won’t accept it as proof despite scientists agreeing that it is a far better test. There are two basic scientific arguments that anyone can use against animal experiments and against animal researchers. The first is that animals and people are biologically very different from each other, and to many scientists it is blatantly obvious. The second point is that animals at the beginning of the experiment are usually healthy and they are made ill. They are given a disease or they are injured by artificial means, and in that way nothing resembles the natural history, or the natural course of the disease in people, that researchers are trying to mimic in animals. Those two arguments are powerful: animals and people are biologically very different from each other, and the fact that the animals are healthy at the beginning of the e... ... middle of paper ... ...l Testing - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. "Animal Welfare Act." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. "The Animal Welfare Act - Summary of the Animal Welfare Act in Plain English." About.com Animal Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. "Do Octopuses Commit Suicide?" TONMO.com: The Octopus News Magazine Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. Machan, Tibor R. "Animals Do Not Have Rights." The Opinion Pages- Room For Debate. The New York Times, 5 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. "Paracetamol." Information from Drugs.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. "Public+Health+Service." TheFreeDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. "What Is the Public Health System?" United States Department of Health and Human Services. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. "Vivisection Information Network." 50 Disasters of Animal Testing ». N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.
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.
Driscoll, Sally and Laura Finley. “Animal Experimentation: An Overview.”Points Of View: Animal Experimentation (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 6 Feb. 2014
Jessen, Walter. "Animal Research: Animal Welfare Vs Animal Rights." HighlightHealth.com. N.P Sept. 2010. Web. 21 Nov. 2011.
McKay, Michele. "The Cruelty of Lab Animal Testing." Down to Earth. N.p., 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.
Animals deserve certain rights. As Dog˘an expresses, “Animals have a right to life, to liberty in the sense of freedom of movement and communication, to subsistence, to relief from suffering, and to security against
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.
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
Dr. Jane Goodall, a primatologist and ethologist, believes that animal testing is "morally, and ethically unacceptable". In her article, "So Much Animal Pain, So Little Human Gain", she states that animal testing does not benefit for humans and how much the animal suffer in the experiment. Using animal in research can't always predict the results for humans. There are some cases that even though the experiment succeeded, it wasn't safe for humans. Around 92% of drugs that passed in the animal testing didn't work with humans (Top 5 Reason). The reason is that animals are different from humans. Even though animals can't talk or make judgments like humans, they have emotions, consciousness, and intelligence. The animals can feel stress, fear, and pain during the experiment. She claims that there are alternatives other than animals like using cells, computer models, and more. She also includes that animal testing cost a lot more than the alternatives. The biggest issue when it comes to animal testing is how animals are treated during the experiment. Although animals are protected from the Animal Welfare Act, not all animals that are used for research are not protected. With that, there are chances that they can be ...
Morrison, Nick. "Animal Rights and Wrongs." Northern Echo, 24 Feb. 2001: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
For years now people have been using animal experimentation to create new ways to help save the human race. There are people who believe that it does help, and that it is necessary to continue, while others oppose and want to fight for the elimination of animal experimentation. Scientists fight for the cures needed to help man kind, but struggle to do so as people fight against their work in progress. But as Jennifer A. Hurley stated, “History has already shown that animal experimentation is not essential to medical progress.” Stuart W.G. Derbyshire believes “The best hopes to treat or cure any number of diseases all rely in the current animal experiments.” Both sides have evidence that can allow both to be proven correct. But there are negative arguments that can prove the other wise. The real question to ask is, Does animal experimentation really help advance medical research?
"The Animal Welfare Act: An Overview." United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (2006): n. pag. Web. 2 Dec 2009. .
Whether on the farm, at home, or at the dinner table, animals play an important role in everyday human life. They serve as a source of livelihood, entertainment, inspiration, and of course food and clothing to people all across the world. Yet animals can exist independent from people and, as living beings, they arguably have interests separate and apart from their utility to humanity. However, society is increasingly faced with legal, ethical, and economic dilemmas about the position for animals and the extent to which their interests should be respected, even when those interests conflict with what is best for humans. All animals should be treated respectfully but they are not equal to humans. However, animals need to have the Animal Bill of Rights because it can stop animal abuse, unnecessary animal experiments, and the death of many innocent creatures, but cannot have equal rights as humans have because we cannot ignore human suffering and focus only on animals rights.
Clemmitt, Marcia. "Animal Rights." CQ Researcher by CQ Press. N.p., 10 Jan. 2010. Web. 27
Evidence of animal testing can be found in greek writing as early as 500 B.C. Clearly showing that animal testing has been around for a long time, but only recently has it become a topic of real concern. Used for the purpose of developing medical treatments that could one day benefit humankind, determine the toxicity of medications (usually in at least two animal species), and to check the safety of products that are destined for human use. http://animal-testing.procon.org/ Animal testing has sprouted debate among the human population. Proponents of animal testing argue that animal testing is necessary to achieve medical breakthroughs, without animal testing who would they use for experiments, and that animal testing is important for learning. Arguments for those against animal testing include the fact that animals are biologically different than humans, they are caged in inhumane living conditions, must undergo painful experiments, and it is extremely costly.
Animal testing is known as vivisection and in vivo. In Europe, there are approximately 12.1 million animal testing experiments were conducted annually (Murnaghan, 2010). Animal testing has been practiced across the history of medical research and one of the famous researcher was Galen, ‘Father of Vivisection’. In recent years, a lot of animal rights groups and animal protections were published that cause the practice of using animals for biomedical research has come under severe criticism (Hajar, 2011). To illustrate, Chinese activists protested against dog meat festival in southern town of Yulun even though dog meat is a traditional dish in some area of China (Rajagopalan, 2015). Although animal testing may have unreliable results, it can