Introduction
A lot of controversy has arisen between the animal rights activists and scientists about whether it is appropriate to use animals in experimental tests. It is highly debatable whether using animals for such tests culminates in finding cure for diseases. From my viewpoint with the absence of other alternatives, and the possibility that the test on the animal will contribute to medicine, animals may be used. Although animal rights champions claim equality of humans and animals their deaths cannot be compared, therefore, killing an animal to save a human life shouldn’t be considered unethical since the advancement of science benefits the entire humanity.
Furthermore, supporters of animal rights label the scientists as being ‘inhumane’ for making animals to die in their medical experiments whilst they don’t oppose the people, especially the farmers, who kill animals to get food, even with information that ninety nine percent of animal deaths is perpetrated by the farmers while only an insignificant percentage of about one percent is caused by medical scientists.
Another critical argument put forward by the animal rights defenders is on the genetic difference between people and animals therefore of less value to use animals in test research to examine how some substances affect people. The activists claim that it will bring no good in using animals in scientific experiments because they are too much different to be compared to human beings.
Others even assert that, alternatively the scientists should use the people directly to ascertain validity and reliability of their observations. However, the champions of animal right fails to foresee the future disastrous outcome of such a practice because a lot of people are likely to die until the scientists obtain a healthy result. There is overwhelming scientific consensus worldwide that some animals are still needed in order to make medical progress.
In cases where animals are used in medical research projects, they are used as part of a variety of scientific techniques that might include computer modeling, human trials, statistical techniques, cell culture, and others. The animals are used only for parts of scientific research where other techniques cannot provide the answer.
Although there are some similarities between people and animals they may not be the same, but to some extent there are some similarities that can send signals to the scientists about animal use in experiments. From this viewpoint, there is nothing wrong in scientists using animal models to equip themselves with valuable information about the happenings at detail level that could be unachievable in humans.
In spite of some incidents when the animal tests failed to prove usefulness and some effects of several drugs observed on the animals could not be observed on the people. Furthermore, there are numerous examples showing that using animals resulted in major developments and aided in curing a number of serious illnesses.
Animal testing has enabled invention of new medicine. Virtually every research in medicine that has awarded with the Nobel Prize have employed animal-testing. One such example is the polio vaccine. En-ders’s research on poliomyelitis that used monkeys and mice in 1954 won the Nobel Prize, and is viewed as the breakthrough in the polio research. As a result of the extensive polio-research, numerous lives are saved everyday throughout the whole world.
Furthermore, many people might believe that animal testing helps only humans, but what majority of the people don’t know is that it also helps animals in various ways. Animals share similar diseases as the humans, such as cancer, epilepsy, asthma, high blood pressure, and a lot of other common illnesses. Animals require the same medications as human beings for treatment and such treatments come from the animal testing.
Cancer is also common in animals and to treat animals, doctors must use similar medicine just like in humans in cancer treatment. However, to treat animals, the veterans use smaller doses at less regular intervals. Cancer treatment is one of treatments that developed by carrying out animal testing. Not just cancer but also, arthritis in dogs, blood transfusion as well as bone cancer require a similar treatment for animals just like it would in treating humans.
In addition, animals may not exhibit the exact similar psychology like humans, but experimenting on animal is accurate enough to check whether a substance is safe enough for trying on humans. Basing upon the fact that animal testing has led to the development of treatment for the bacterial infections, which are a big cause of death, has helped save millions of lives. Penicillin, a treatment for bacterial infections, was used on mice to test whether it would harm the body of a human. The mice were initially injected with the deadly dose of bacteria where some were injected with penicillin while some were not.
Basically, the results stated that penicillin could be used as a bacteria treatment when the mice that had been dosed with the penicillin survived. If this experiment was never conducted maybe the treatment for bacteria would never have developed further. The experiment has helped save millions of both human and animal lives.
Alternative methods may be available that should be used in place of animal testing. In such cases it is of course brutal and unethical to use animals. For instance, in several experiments alternative in-vitro methods can be used instead of using live animals. In such instances, it is of course much better and right to use these alternative methods. While it is not morally ideal to conduct animal testing there are no suitable alternatives yet. Therefore, it is premature to abandon animal-testing since it is invaluable for innovation and discovery in medicine.
Human beings enjoy stronger rights than animals since they reason rationally. Animals are used for food, play, their skins are won and most important human use them for medical purposes. Animal testing has enabled discoveries that have saved millions of lives. The results have facilitated immunizations against mumps, polio, rubella, hepatitis, and diphtheria.
Animal testing is crucial for the scientists, health agencies as well as medical societies to research on animals throughout the world in enhancing human lives. The world over, government regulations require that new drugs, surgical implants, and vaccines to first be tested in animals to establish any potential toxic reactions. It is only through animal testing that the human race can continue producing safe medicines; otherwise, the scientists cannot guarantee the safety and reliability of medicine.
A great number of medical treatments as well as procedures have been developed through animal experiments. Since the animals share a lot of features with the humans, the scientists use animals in testing the safety as well as the effectiveness of the newly developed medicines before conducting a pilot test on a small group of patients. The medical team practices new techniques of operating, for example, transplants on animals. Without testing on animals, many new drugs or procedures would be particularly unsafe.
All in all, animal testing can be viewed as ethical as long as it contributes to development in science and enables the scientists find ways of improving the health of humans. Moreover, this practice is acceptable only on the condition that the necessary pains are taken and animals are treated in a humane manner. Opposing all animal testing would call for a life without vaccines, painkillers, drugs, surgery and anesthetics. The human species would not survive without treatment to illnesses.
