Examples Of Ethical Dilemmas In Animal Testing

Professor Freund
English 101
25 November 2014
Animal testing; an ethical dilemma
We, as humans, have made abundant developments in the world. The human population have securely recognized the scientific advancement, but in doing so, it seems that our ideas and morals have miscarried to progress as well. The realization we have developed is extraordinary, but with it comes obligation to use it wisely and ethically. For some, torment and heartlessly kill creatures that the unpleasantly consider lesser beings simply are at our disposal. For something as simple as eye makeup animals are tortured and blinded by tests performed at the laboratory. The innocent creature are hardly fed, often forced to live in filth, and sometimes have their vocal
cords removed to keep them quiet. Loggers in Brazil, Africa, and Asia cut down the last forest that delivers their shelter to farm cattle; according to Environment America 206 million pounds of toxic chemicals are dumped into our waterways and sewage, which is used for drinking, swimming, and supporting wildlife; we wear and show the tusks of the last few of their species in our homes, and we pour cosmetic products into their eyes and body parts to decide the destructive effects they might cause on individuals, even though the physiological differentiation between humans and the animals they use is drastic. On a daily basis most people do not see their own amount of unintended support towards this worldwide problem, but once assembled on paper one essential question how mankind can, with morality, oblige these acts which dishonor us as human beings. Although some claim that the use of animals in laboratories is essential for the well-being and health of humans, some individuals mistakenly consider that this corrupt method of experimentation is crucial to test for cosmetics or to cure human illnesses.
Animals in research and to test the safety of products has been a subject of heated debate for decades. People have different feelings for animals; many look upon animals as friends while others view animals as a means for proceeding medicinal techniques or advancing experimental research. Though individuals observe animals, the point remains that animals are being abused by research facilities and cosmetics companies all across the nation. PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals) declares that more than 100 million animals are killed in the US laboratories for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, chemical, drug, and cosmetics testing. The global research for animal research claims that new medicines require testing because researchers must measure both the beneficial and the harmful effects of a compound on a whole organism. A medicine is initially tested in vitro using tissues and isolated organs, but legally and ethically it must also be tested in a suitable animal model before clinical trials in humans can take place. Although humans often profit from effective animal research, the agony, the misery, and the deaths of innocent animals are not importance the possible human benefits, when laboratories can be testing on humans themselves.
Animals ' rights are desecrated when they are operated in examination.
Animals and people are similar in numerous ways; they together feel, think, behave, love, and are familiarity with pain. Consequently, all living breathing organisms should be treated with the same respect as human beings. However animals ' rights are despoiled when they are used in study and research because they are not given a choice they don’t ultimately don’t even have a choice. Animals are exposed to tests that are often throbbing or cause everlasting damage or bereavement, and they are never given the opportunity of not contributing in the experimentations. Animals do not willingly sacrifice themselves for the advancement of human welfare and new technology. Their decisions are made for them because they cannot vocalize their own preferences and choices. When humans select the outcome of animals in research environments, the animals ' privileges are taken away without any alleged of their well-being or the value of their
lives.
Pain and suffering that experimental animals are subject to is not worth any possible benefits to humans.
When animals are used for product toxicity testing or laboratory research, they are subjected to painful and frequently deadly experiments. Two of the most commonly used toxicity tests are the Draize test and the LD50 test, both of which are infamous for the intense pain and suffering they inflect upon experimental animals. PETA statements to the acute toxicity tests determines the toxic consequences of a single, short-term exposure to a product or chemical, the substance is administered to animals (usually rodents) in extremely high doses via force-feeding, forced inhalation, and/or absorption through the skin. Animals in the highest-dose groups may endure severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, convulsions, seizures, paralysis, and bleeding from the nose, mouth, and genitals before they ultimately die. In the Draize test the substance or product being tested is placed in the eyes of an animal (generally a rabbit is used for this test); then the animal is monitored for damage to the cornea and other tissues in and near the eye. This test is intensely painful for the animal, and blindness, scarring, and death are generally the end results. The Draize test has been criticized for being unreliable and a needless waste of animal life. The LD50 test is used to test the dosage of a substance that is necessary to cause death in fifty percent of the animal subjects within a certain
amount of time. To perform this test, the researchers hook the animals up to tubes that pump huge amounts of the test product into their stomachs until they die. This test is extremely painful to the animals because death can take days or even weeks. LD50 test is "scientifically unjustifiable. The precision it purports to provide is an illusion because of uncontrollable biological variables". The use of the Draize test and the LD50 test to examine product toxicity has decreased over the past few years, but these tests have not been eliminated completely. Thus, because animals are subjected to agonizing pain, suffering and death when they are used in laboratory and cosmetics testing, animal research must be stopped to prevent more waste of animal life.
Testing of products on animals is completely unnecessary because viable alternatives are available. Many cosmetic companies, for example, have sought better ways to test their products without the use of animal subjects. In Against Animal Testing, a pamphlet published by The Body Shop, a well-known cosmetics and bath-product company based in London, the development of products that "use natural ingredients, like bananas and Basil nut oil, as well as others with a long history of safe human usage" is advocated instead of testing on animals (3).Furthermore, the Draize test has become practically obsolete because of the development of a synthetic cellular tissue that closely resembles human skin. Researchers can test the potential damage that a product can do to the skin by using this artificial "skin" instead of testing on animals. Another alternative to this test is a product called Eyetex. This synthetic material turns opaque when a product damages it, closely resembling the way that a real eye reacts to harmful substances. Computers have also been used to simulate and estimate the potential damage that a product or chemical can cause, and human tissues and cells have been used to examine the effects of harmful substances. In another method, in vitro testing, cellular tests are done inside a test tube. All of these tests have been proven to be useful and reliable alternatives to testing products on live animals. Therefore, because effective means of product toxicity testing are available likely, without the use of live animal specimens, testing potentially deadly substances on animals is, unnecessary.

Works Cited
"Biomedical Research : The Humane Society of the United States." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.
Kaufman, Stephen R., M.D. "Safer Medicines Campaign." Safer Medicines Campaign. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.
"Product Testing: Toxic and Tragic." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
"Rabbits in Laboratories." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.
Rumpler, John. "206 Million Pounds of Toxic Chemicals Dumped into America 's Waterways." 206 Million Pounds of Toxic Chemicals Dumped into America 's Waterways. N.p., 19 June 2014. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.
"Why Animals Are Used." Read the Four Main Reasons Why Animals Are Used in Medical Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.