Animal Testing Animal testing began when William Harvey used animals 400 years ago to find out how blood circulated through the body. The "modern" era of animal research however started about 150 years ago with the rise of physiology as a science. It was very different back then. There were no anesthetics or effective painkillers, so the animals suffered a great deal, as did patients. Scientists learned that putting animals, or humans through that type of torture was inhumane. Consider having to have a leg amputated, which was not uncommon in those days due to the fact that infections got very severe without the use of antibiotics, without even so much as an anesthetic to control the pain. Now the treatment is there to help the pain, so neither human nor animal has to go through the excess undue strain. Through all the new medical technology still there will be people who disagree with animal testing. Animal testing provides many benefits that looked over most of the time. One of the most common questions is, “why are animals used in research?” The answer to that question can be broken down into three separate categories. The first reason for animal testing is to advance in scientific understanding. The likelihood of achieving the significant advances we have today in scientific understanding or the prevention and treatment of diseases is very low without the use of animal testing. Through the testing researchers are able to find out problems in humans and even in other animals. Another reason the testing is used is because it develops solutions to medical problems. More than half the animals that have been tested on have succeeded in finding a cure for the human race. The third is to protect the safety of people, animals ... ... middle of paper ... ...an ape with a tube in its skull than it is to unite behind a defenseless woman. It is important and even very crucial that such people as disabled people defend animal testing. For example we can return to both the medical and social conditions of what are now thankfully in the past. Doesn’t it make more sense for one to test on chimps before people? In the past, disabled people were used as medical guinea pigs. Call me an animal-hating barbarian, but I would rather use animals than my fellow mental types. (Newsweek 2005) In all, animal testing helps research science. Animal rights activists can argue their points until the end, yet in a matter of their life or their families lives, more than half of them would have to contest and say that they would rather have an animal be tested for something before their family member. It is done in humane ways and is reliable.
One must remember that scientists who carry out animal testing are human to and most definitely do feel some sense of guilt using these animals for the sole reason to benefit mankind. However, “if there were good alternatives to animals that worked better or as well, for less money and hassle, scientists would use them” (Source D). Many believe that animals testing is wrong, but they must understand that at the current time there is no other option. It is difficult to find a different practice has been so substantial and has improved millions of lives and society as a whole. Animal testing, though the testing on animals may not be the best option, the after effects of testing has been successful over the past decades and will continue on this path as scientists and researchers gain more knowledge. There may be a point in time that society becomes so better off that there would be no more need to test
There is a moral blind spot in the treatment of animals that enable us to justify the cruelties for the perceived benefits of humans. Animals are living things. They have lungs which breathe, hearts which beat, and blood that flows. In fact, animals sense of smell, sight, and sound is much more acute than our own. Therefore, we can assume that their sensitivity to pain is at least equal to ours. According to Hippocrates, “The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.” This can go with the Duty Theory that states that every individual gets treated the same. The intentions of animal testing is not to harm the animals, but that is exactly what it does.
Albert Sabin, the developer of the polio vaccine once said, “Without animal research, polio would still be claiming thousands of lives each year.” Polio is a deadly disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person. This infectious disease renders the brain and spinal cord helpless while also ensuring a permanent case of paralysis to the victim. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “…13,000 to 20,000 para-lytic cases were reported annually,” before the 18th century. After the introduction of the polio vaccine, “…a total of 2,525 paralytic cases were reported, compared with 61 in 1965.” This dramatic decrease in the prominence of the polio disease can only be attributed to the success of animal testing. Animal experimentation is used in the research of genetics, drug testing, biology, toxicity testing, cosmetic testing, and many other fields. Despite all of its beneficial traits, animal testing has been wildly controversial over the past decades because of its perceived unethical treatment towards animals. Although animal testing may be deemed unethical by many, it is a form of medical testing that has not only saved lives but has also greatly revolutionized the medical world.
Animal testing is a largely debated and controversial issue. It was first introduced in the United States in the 1920s (Goldberg 85). Since then, there have been many advances in the field of medicine and science. These advances are due largely to the fact that animals are used in experiments and research. Animal testing has given doctors some of their most successful accomplishments. Also, they help researchers discover how to improve long known theories about the human mind and body. Over 40 Nobel Prizes have been given to researchers “whose achievements depended, at least in part, on using laboratory animals” (Trull 64). These animal experiments have helped humans live a better life. Animal testing benefits doctors...
Medical sciences are required to keep us healthy when there are diseases spreading and animal testing is a key part of this research. Animal test is not wrong because it is the only way to keep ahead in the arms race against disease. Disease keep changing and evolving so scientist must keep researching and making stronger, more potent medicines to combat them. Thus we must use living creatures as test subject for the medicines.
The first pro to animal testing is that it has helped us create lifesaving cures and treatments. The California Biomedical Research Association released a statement saying almost every single medical breakthrough has resulted in the direct use of animals in the last 100 years. Can you believe this? Taking out dogs pancreases helped us discover insulin, chimpanzees helped us get a vaccine for Hepatitis B, and even the polio vaccine was tested on animals. Animal testing has also helped us treat and understand conditions like brain injury, breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, childhood leukemia, tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis, malaria, and many others. It even helped us develop anesthetics, pacemakers, and cardiac value substitutes. Almost every cure for any condition is due to animal testing. Without animal testing, we may not have been able to find many of these cures and find cures for other conditions in the future.
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.
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.
In short animal testing saves lives. Animal testing helps find causes, and cures of disease, genetic defects, birth defects, and abnormalities.
It shows that some of the people agree to become volunteers to help the study and it does not only help them but also help other people who face the same disease around the world. Therefore, other methods are more accurate than animal testing. Animal testing should be banned because there are other better ways and no matter how many times of animal testing success, the sciences always test the new drugs on humans after animal testing is successful. Finally, proponents of animal testing claim that animals do not have, because animals cannot distinguish between good or bad, and they just follow their instinct.
However, as people think about animal rights, and the news that animals are suffering in the experiment, people began to consider stopping all animal testing. Animal testing should not be banned, because it both benefits humans and animals, especially the medical animal testing should be reserved. According to the book “Science, Medicine, and Animals” by the Committee on the Use of Animals in Research, National Academy of Sciences (1991), the animals also provide protection to a lot of endangered animals. Scientists can invent medicine, which is used to treat animal diseases, from animal experiments.
Our case is that if we don’t test on animals then progress in scientific fields would be halted. As first speaker for the negative I will speak about the benefits of animal testing in general and then I’ll talk in detail about animal testing in medicine. My second speaker will talk about the opinions on testing and the food chain and my third speaker will summarise our points and rebut.
For years animal testing has been a very controversial issue around the globe. Animal testing has been very beneficial to people, but has cause an up stir to animal rights activists and organizations like PETA. “The earliest references to animal ex...
Animal testing hasn’t been beneficiary towards any scientific breakthrough or discovery. Elias Zourhini says, “Animal testing has been useless” he is one of the main people who are strongly making a push to try and stop animal testing as a whole. “There have been thousands of dead and injured animals in the past years or so and there has been any reward or safety ensured because of these animals. Animals have been being used for testing for many years now, and especially now, the number of animals that are being used to be experimented on are extremely high. However, you may not know that laboratories aren’t required to publish how many animals they used or how many experiments conducted. Maybe that would help to find out especially what animals need to be strongly protected against testing. “Every laboratory should publish an annual statement setting forth plainly the number and kind of experiments and the methods of conducting them” (Gould qd. in Leffingwell 211). This would help many things and especially organizations that are protesting, to give reasons and facts about testing. Animals are used and then unaccounted for. Truly, you may never know h...
For many years there has been controversy whether or not animals should be tested on between scientists and animal right supporters. It is very debatable if animals should be tested on when a cure for a disease could be found from testing on animals. From my own personal view I have a huge heart for animals, but if we can not find other alternatives, and is possible we can find cures for diseases, then animals may be used for research, but only for medical reasons.