Protect Animals, Not Death Row Inmates

Should we protect the rights of guilty humans or innocent animals? A commonly debated topic in America today is whether we should use death row inmates or animals as test subjects for products that could potentially cause harm to the subject. There are many good points why both are wrong, but if one life can benefit the entire population, then surely we can all agree that taking that life is worth the risk. Using death row inmates as test subjects could be a bigger help to the human race instead of using animals. Death row inmates should be used as test subjects instead of animals because they forfeited their rights, and using humans gives a better idea of how the product will affect other humans.

When a human kills another human being, they forfeit all of their basic human rights. We kill, burn, cripple, or poison over 100 million animals each year in the United States alone. These animals are innocent, but are having their quality of life either ruined or taken from them for the benefit of humans. Ninety-two percent of the drugs that were found to be safe on animals after experiments, ended up failing in human trials because they were not safe for humans (11 Facts About Animal Testing). There is an easy way to find out what drugs will work on humans without making innocent animals suffer through the torture of being tested on. The solution to this would be to use inmates who are sitting on death row, waiting to die, as test subjects for products instead of animals. These inmates are going to die anyway, so humankind might as well get some benefit from them before they die. The average death row inmate sits on death row for at least a decade, but some can sit on death row for over twenty years (Babcock, Sandra). It makes no sen...

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...ulation it should, especially if that someone forfeited their rights.

Works Cited

Babcock, Sandra.“Time on Death Row.” Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center. 6 August 2014. Web. 8 May 2014.

Cunningham, Mark D., Thomas J. Reidy, and Jon R. Sorensen. "Is Death Row Obsolete? A Decade Of Mainstreaming Death-Sentenced Inmates In Missouri." Behavioral Sciences & The Law 23.3 (2005): 307-320. Academic Search Premier. Print. 8 May 2014.

Sullivan, Dan. "Nation's Longest Serving Death-row Inmate Dies in Florida." Tampa Bay Times. Tampa Bay Times, 21 May 2013. Web. 08 May 2014.

“The Innocence List.” Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center. Web. 8 May 2014.

United States Constitution. Amendment VIII. 15 December 1791. Print. 8 May 2014

“11 Facts About Animal Testing.” Do Something. DoSomething.org. Web. 8 May 2014.