Although the compensations were fatal and some can be described as inhumane treatment, animal research has played a vital role in virtually every major medical advance of the last century for both human and animal health. Due to animal research, deadly diseases that have wiped out millions of people annually are treatable or are no longer existent. Some scientists have developed such great discoveries that according to the American Cancer Society, the fight against cancer has seen 24 significant biomedical advances in the past 30 years. The discoveries that have furthered treatment for cancer have included some worthy of a Nobel Prize which included those of bone marrow transplantation, gene cloning, and discoveries including proto-oncogenes in normal DNA to show what cells could have cancer.
Introduction Each year in USA laboratories more then 100 million animals are burned, poisoned and lamed (Top 5 Shocking Animal Experimentation Facts). Each year scientists use animals in order to progress, to improve life of people and animals. However, many testing animals suffer and die. But others do not agree and support the fact that we should use animals because of advance. So what are advantages and disadvantages of using animals?
Experimentation on animals date back to as early as 500 BC, making this form of medical validation one of the oldest known to humans. It is not only one of the oldest but one of the most informative. Scientists use animals in medical research to study how the body works and how to diagnose, cure, and prevent disease. Researchers also use animals for tests to try to protect the public from dangerous chemicals, (Day, 13) such as those included in detergents, bleach, and other household products. When live animals are used in experimentation, this practice is called vivisection.
Animal experimentation is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Animal experimentation also known as animal testing had established way back into the second century A.D. A Roman physician, named Galen started to perform endless animal experiments. (Safer Medicines.) On the other hand, the first major animal experiments occurred in the nineteenth century. Luis Pasteur administered anthrax to sheep.
It is the year of 2016, medical researchers have come a long way compared to 50 years ago. Animal research is at its all time high when it comes to research money and the use of animal testing. Activists are speaking out left and right claiming, animals are only suffering and being killed with tremendous pain and unethically. Millions of animals are being tested every year and laws are not helping at all. Most institutions want to mention that they follow the laws for animals and they follow the guide for reducing, replacing, and reusing the animals.
Because of this research dozens of vaccines and antibiotics have been discovered and new advancements such as open-heart surgery have been perfected. Animals are used in research and testing when it is necessary to see what happens in the whole living body, where the use of human subjects would not be ethically acceptable (Biomedical Models). Most often animal research is very important in discovering new treatments for diseases and cannot be replaced by computer generated models. One of the best-known medical discoveries is that of insulin, which saves almost 500,000 American, lives each year (Chang). Many more discoveries have been made thanks to animal research and testing.
Animal research has been around for several years. It is what helped discover so many cures for illnesses and saved over thousands of human lives. But is animal research ever justifiable? Several people believe that animal testing is cruel and shameful, but then there are those who believe it is necessary to humans well being. Animal testing is when procedures are performed on living animals for research purposes on biology and diseases that affect human beings.
During animal testing, scientists inject chemicals and medicines in animals’ bodies and that stay in there for weeks. From rats to humans, animal experimentation impacts everyone and everything. Labs around the U.S. and even some makeup companies depend on animal testing to make money by making sure their products won’t harm a human. It has been dated back to the Greeks and Romans and still is occurring today. There has been an act passed called the Animal Welfare Act, but it excludes anything about many rodents, birds, and some other organisms.
Animals have been used in medical research for the centuries; it is most famously known that the Greek doctor Galen first used animals for research in around 129-200 AD. Over the years the public has given medical animal testing a bad label but what they fail to recognize is that medical animal testing has saved millions of lives. Practically every protocol for the prevention, treatment, cure and control of every disease is based on knowledge obtained through animal research. A pamphlet was made to spread the word that animal testing is a benefit rather than a disaster. The pamphlet is specifically targeted towards parents with young children around the ages of still in the womb to 8 years.
Throughout history, animals have been used in experiments to test product safety and obtain medical knowledge that benefits both humans and animals alike. Every year there are numerous medical breakthroughs, such as medications and surgical instruments, which are tested on animals to insure their safety before they are deemed acceptable for human use. Even though the results of the experiments saved millions of human lives, they are also killing millions of innocent animal lives in the process. The use of animals for scientific experimentation purposes is unnecessary because countless animals are put through painful procedures in order to benefit humans lives when there are known alternative methods for achieving the same experimental results. Animal experimentation is not a modern day research method; Aristotle was one of the first to be recorded to use live animals in his research (Thomassen 2).