Animal Experimentation Considered Ethical

To what extent is animal experimentation considered ethical?

Every year more than 25 million animals are used to develop new medicines and the majority of these animals are either euthanized or die from the experiments. This makes many people question our motives and moral principles. Should we continue to allow scientists to use animals for their research? Is research experiments really necessary? Is it alright for us to kill animals just so that we can benefit? The debate between supporting or opposing animal experimentation is difficult due to the success and failure we receive. But we can not deny the fact that animal experimentation is a very important factor that helps us advance in medical researches and technologies. They help us
identify how new medicines should be altered and improved so that humans can benefit. Although many support animal experimentation due to the success it has brought, many argue that animal experimentation is unjustified and try to cease animal experimentation and instead use alternatives.

Animal experimentation is considered a crime and unethical by many due to the agony animals are forced to witness through the continuous researches and advancements.
They believe it is a crime to animals because they most often face severe symptoms. They also believe the results from animal experimentation is trivial compared to the agony animals are forced to witness. Antivivisectionists ( people who oppose experimentation that involves surgery) argue that issues like the one at St. Lawrence University, a rabbit was forced to go through vivisection (experiments tried on animals that involve surgery) without proper anesthesia. Which many people would consider unfair and inhumane. Vivisection is considered as animal abuse to many people due to the inhumane pain and cruelty they have to face. Opposers state that there are many alternative ways to test new researches. People believe that new alternatives are just as helpful to research projects as animals. Micro dosing for example can help scientists and animals by showing how small doses of new medicines that have not been fully tested and made sure it is safe, will move around the body. In vitro testing are considered as excellent replacements because they can produce different wounds and situations that are sometimes difficult to find through animals. It is also cheaper than animal experimentation because you do not have to feed, housed and cared for by veterinarians and other people. MRI scanning is an alternative that can
not replace animal experimentation but instead can find problems within the brain and help reduce animal experimentation but can not completely end it. Animals are also living organisms that also feel just like humans.

Many support animal experimentation due to the society that is around us.
Scientists and others argue that the different alternatives available are unreliable because of the small range and minimum perspective it can be observed at. The alternatives can not be a better source than animals because animals are living organisms that have similar structure and organs as humans. But other different types of alternatives can not be much of use due to the different characteristics and anatomy that living organisms have obtained. Animal experimentation is also reliable due to the characteristics and motions that animals can deliver to us which will help us develop the medicines so that they are safe for humans. They are a much more sophisticated way to test new researches than other options that are pointless because they are only tested on isolated tissues and can not show how it affects the whole body. Although many disagree and state that computer modelling is a very effective way of testing new medical researches, computers can never replace the different characteristics and feelings a living organism witnesses. In addition humans are involuntary to most medical researches due to the chance of infection, disease, etc. and even if they do agree to help, they are expensive to use. The people supporting animal experimentation believe in a principle called the Three R’s called Reduction, Refinement and Replacement. Reduction is a concept that tries to help animals by making
scientists and researches use as few animals as possible. Refinement is to make sure animals feel as minimum pain and agony as possible. Replacement is trying to use alternative resources when possible instead of animals. These are key principles are important concepts that are supported by many people. People are comforted by the fact that rules such as the Animal Welfare Regulations are in place by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee so that they know that if animals can be replaced with some other alternative if possible. The outcome of animal experimentation are extremely helpful to doctors and people in need of medical advancement. Many patients are helpless when the face situations that they have never witnessed. In fact, the only way to make sure we save patients with unique cases is for us to discover new ways to face the issue. The majority of patients would not want to bet their life on a new discovery, they wouldn’t want to die because of something that could have been tested out and fixed. Over 120,000 patients around the world are on a waitlist to receive organs from donors. But they are not always able to receive organs due to some organs that are not able to survive while travelling through long distances around the world. But scientists are slowly discovering new ways to maintain the life in an organ for as long as possible. But scientists discovered that rat livers could be stored 3-4 days when supercooled. The rat liver was then transferred to a rat who survived for about a month. This could open new doors to patients who are in desperate need of new organs and other parts of the body.

Due to the society we live in we are not able to end animal experimentation. The inadequate and insufficient amount of human volunteers and the undependable alternatives can only lead to animal testing. It is understandable that people are against animal experimentation for cosmetics, but when our lives are at risk it can not be helped. There are always consequences that follow choices. We as a community chose to advance in technologies and medications but in order for us to do so we sacrifice animals and other types of living organisms. Due to the rapidly changing world, we always face new diseases. We should be grateful for everything due to the help we receive from animals. Animal experimentation will help us advance and discover new good and bad discoveries. Machines can never replace the way living organisms react, feel and their characteristics. They may one day reduce the number of animals we need greatly. But they will always be machines that are programmed.