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Medical advances from animal testing
Intriguing issue about animal testing
The importance of animal testing for medical purposes
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Recommended: Medical advances from animal testing
The debate about animal testing in medical research is an endless battle and up to now one of the most controversial moral and social issues. Many scientists believe that animal testing is the only way to test on a new medicine that can save people’s lives. However, animal advocates believe that medical research on animals causes pain, distress, and self-mutilation, that animal testing yields different results which do not scale to humans and that medical advances can still be made possible with alternative methods.
The History
Since at least 500 BC during the ancient times of the Greeks and Romans, vivisection was practiced up to the late Middle Ages and The Renaissance. Because of the prohibitions in dissecting humans, physicians in ancient Greece used animals for anatomical studies. Vivisection is the term used to describe the cutting or dissecting live animals for experimentation. Physicians and biologists use vivisection to study human anatomy to come up with theories relating to the causes, effects and possible cure of a disease. Most experiments in the early 18th century were conducted without anesthetics so animals suffered severe pain during the process. An anesthetic is a drug used to numb the
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Alternatives are less expensive and can produce more reliable results than animal experimentation. This method supported the replacement objective in the 3Rs. One of these is Vitro studies, the study uses blood cells, cancer cells, and liver cells to examine the properties of a drug in a petri dish. Human cells are placed in a dish mixed with a dye and other substance. Different colors indicate whether all cells are alive(red), all cells are dead(clear), and some cells are dead (pink). These colors are analyzed using a computer program that computes how likely the substance can kill human’s
She sits alone in a threadbare, chilly, metal cage. Her eyes dart around wondering when the next torture will commence. If the testing fails to kill her, the stress definitely will. Entering is the doctor who plans to perform an eye irritancy test. The rabbit’s eyes will be held open with clips for at least three days if she survives that long (“Frequently Asked Questions”). Similarly, if these procedures would be performed on a human, they would be considered illegal. Yet, scientists continue to make harmless animals suffer incessantly. Annually, countless animals are abused in American test labs; however, alternative practices should be implemented in order to participate in worldwide trade, save innocent lives, and provide more accurate data.
Over 100 Million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned and abused in testing labs every year. Animals are used to test the safety of products, advance scientific research, and develop models to study disease and to develop new medical treatments, all for the sake of mankind. Animals should not be used for scientific research because animal testing is inhumane, other testing methods now exist, and animals are very different from human beings. While animal testing has led to many life-saving cures, animal testing is cruel and inhumane because it involves inflicting pain and harm on the test subject to study its effects and remedies. Testing involves physically restraining, force-feeding, and depriving animals of food and water.
According to the California Biomedical Research Association, almost every medical advancement in the last 100 years is a direct result of animal testing and research. The use of animals has become standard procedure in a wide range of testing and experimentation, including product toxicity testing, biomedical and veterinary experiments, drug development and testing, and education. Major advancements in treating and understanding chronic conditions such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, malaria, and tuberculosis, have been achieved due to animal research. Also, the development of pacemakers, cardiac valve substitutes, and anesthetics are also direct results of the testing and observation of animals. On the other hand, many people believe that animal testing is cruel and inhumane. In many laboratories animals are subjected to force feeding, food and water deprivation, physical restraints, and infliction of pain. Because the animals cannot protect themselves, many people argue that exploiting animals to better the lives of humans is wrong and should not be permitted.
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.
According to an article by PETA, “experiments on animals are cruel, expensive and generally inapplicable to humans” (PETA 1). This shows how not only many laboratories and companies that use animals in their experiments are wasting money and time, but also wasting countless lives of animals. As a human, one does not have to suffer through unconsenting pain because no one would ever consent to be treated the way lab rats would be treated. A study done by the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that” medical treatments developed in animals rarely translated to humans” (Hackam, Redelmeier 1). This being said, it is not easy to comprehend why animal testing continues. However, as a community people think that “the benefits to humans does not justify the harm to animals” (Hajar 1). This goes to show how people who are pro-animal testing, marginalize the damage animal testing is doing to animals. While some may say that there needs to be alternative methods to animal testing, others may say that without animal testing it would be harder to test out new products for humans. Yet, with the information given by doctors Hackam and Redelmeier, it is clear to see that the use of animals is no longer
Animals have always held a very special place in the hearts of the human race. They are our best friends, our stress relievers, members of our families, and our test subjects for experimentation. For hundreds of years, animals have been used in laboratory settings as a replacement for humans when studying the effects of medical treatments. On average, nearly one hundred million animals are used in clinical trials every year (Ferdowsian). These animals have contributed to hundreds of breakthroughs in the medical field including countless toxicity tests to determine drug toxicity to humans, and exposure to paralyzing anesthetics to create anesthesia used in surgical procedures today. These animals have been vital
and Europe, which include reduction of animal use, refine animal study techniques, and animal testing replacement. According to Dana ,Bidnall, “Animals are also used, and subsequently killed, every year in many other types of laboratory experiments, from military testing to simulated car crashes to deliberately introduced diseases such as AIDS and Alzheimer 's”(49). Bidnal also states that, “These experiments take place in labs at universities, pharmaceutical companies, and testing agencies, and on farms and military bases around the world”(49). The author suggest,”Researchers who conduct experiments on animals argue that it would be unethical to test substances with potentially adverse side effects on humans; animals are good surrogates because their responses are similar to humans”(49).Bidnal contends with ,”However, some animals are chosen for other reasons”(49). According to Bindal, “Animal testing is not the only option in toxicity testing”(50). Bidnal states, “Alternatives are widely available and include human clinical and epidemiological studies; experiments with cadavers, volunteers,and patients; computer simulation and mathematical models; and in vitro (test tube) tissue culture techniques, to name just a
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)
Alternative methods are sometimes more reliable, more accurate, cost-effective, practical, and expedient Alternative testing can be used for in preclinical studies .These methods are vitro methods (human cells and tissues), silico models (advanced computer-modeling techniques), studies with human volunteers (microdosing, advanced brain imaging and recording techniques), stem cell, genetic testing methods, computerized patient-drug databases ,virtual drug trials and human-patient simulators can be used for the assessment of the safety of drugs, chemicals, cosmetics, medical devices, consumer and investigational products.
Throughout history, animal testing has played an important role in leading to new discoveries and human benefit. However, what many people forget are the great numbers of animals that have suffered serious harm during the process of animal testing. Animal testing is the use of animals in biological, medical, and psychological studies. The development and enhancement of medical research has been based on the testing of animals. There are many questions being asked if animal research is good or not or if the benefit for us is way greater the abuse of animals. Doing tests on animals can help find ways to cure diseases, but testing on them is wrong. Although we want to find cures for diseases to help many people, testing on animals not only brutally hurts them but it also denies the animals the rights they have.
Argument Essay Where Would We Be Without Animal Testing? Is the use of animals in research justified? Should animal experimentation be permitted? Should these animals be liberated? A logical person would say the benefits justify the research.
The argument surrounding animal testing is older than the United States of America, dating back to the 1650’s when Edmund O’Meara stated that vivisection, the dissection of live animals, is an unnatural act. Although this is one of the first major oppositions to animal testing, animal testing was being practiced for millennia beforehand. There are two sides opposing each other in the argument of animal testing, and the argument is one of the oldest arguments still being debated today. The history of animal experimentation and testing, and the arguments 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.
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, 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.
The use of animals in medical research began in the early years of physicians such as Aristotle (384-322 BC), Erasistratus (304-258 BC) and Galen (129-199/217 AD). These physicians performed experiments on animals to understand things such as anatomy and physiology. An experimental method for testing surgical procedures was introduced by Ibn Zuhr, an Arab physician; surgical procedures were carried out on animals before it was applied to human patients.