INTRO Animal experimentation is of two types, cosmetic and medical

ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION
AG We all think that animals are cute and adorable. A lot of us have pets and we love them so much. If one day our pet gets sick and dies, it breaks our heart and we feel like we lost a member from our family. But do you really think that the life of an animal is more valuable than the life of a human being? I would rather experiment drugs and treatment methods on an animal than lose my beloved parent, sister, brother or friend.
INTRO Animal experimentation is of two types, cosmetic and medical. I am totally against the first type which is experimenting animals for make-up and cosmetic products but I fully support the medical type one. Today audience, I am here to persuade you that medical animal experimentation is good and that it results in so many benefits. There are two reasons for that. First, it helps researchers find good drugs and treatments for different diseases. And second, because there is no better alternative to animal experimentation. I believe that you all must listen to this speech because we are all human beings, and we all get sick, and most of the medicines that we use were produced using animal experimentation, so obviously this topic concerns all of us. Now that you know what I’ll be persuading you about, let’s move to my first point which is that animal experimentation helps researchers find drugs and treatments for various diseases.
BODY
1ST PONT Discovery of insulin, cancer cure, and HIV drugs were a result of animal research. Also, treatment methods such as organ transplants and brain operations would not be here today if it wasn’t for animal experimentation. I know that a lot of you, perhaps most of you oppose the act of animal experimentation. Many of you think it’s inhumane to kill animals for our own good. But if you really give it a serious thought you will realize that it is this practice that helped us eliminate a huge number of diseases. According to the American Heart Association, the decline in U.S. death rates from cardiovascular disease since the 1960s is the result of new methods of treatment. Many of those treatments are based upon research requiring animals. Also, without animal research, doctors would have no chemotherapy to save the 70% of children who now survive acute lymphocytic leukemia. Remember, the human benefits which are gained using animal tests outweigh the harm done to animals. Remember, when animals are used for research, they are handled responsibly and humanely. Remember, the suffering of those animals is always minimized as much as possible. According to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), 61% of all the animals who undergo such tests suffer absolutely no pain at all. Now that you know how animal experimentation is very important in finding new drugs and treatments, I’ll move to my second point which is the lack of alternative.

2ND POINT It is extremely essential that new drugs and new surgical treatments are tested on animals first. They must be tested on living, breathing organs with a circulatory system that is similar to us. More importantly, if drugs and treatments are directly tested on humans, they can badly affect our health. At the same time we cannot afford to ignore the fact that nobody would readily volunteer for such testing processes. Those who are against animal experimentation believe that computer modeling can be used as an alternative. However, our bodies are so complex that drugs which seem effective using a computer model might give an opposite result and will turn out to be very toxic when used in a human body. So using computers is definitely a bad idea. Thalidomide, a sedative, was linked to birth defects and taken off the market. Thousands of children died because of this drug. The safety study of thalidomide had not been tested on pregnant animals before bringing it to the market. Proper animal testing would have prevented this tragedy. This example emphasizes the fact that there is no alternative to safety testing in animals. Without animal research, every year, more than 60 million people would risk death from heart attack, stroke or kidney failure from lack of medications. I found these statistics from Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, 2006. Now, every day, thousands and thousands of people are saved from so many different diseases using powerful medicines and drugs. This incredible gift of medicine would not be possible without animal testing.

CONC To put this speech into perspective, medical animal experimentation is good and results in so many benefits. I gave you two reasons why these tests should continue forever. First, they help researchers find good drugs and treatments for different diseases. I told you how so many powerful drugs and treatment techniques were discovered using this method. The second reason is because there is no alternative for animal experimentation. Without it, many diseases would still be impossible to cure and a lot of people would suffer. Those who argue against animal testing must be prepared to offer a better viable alternative that can immediately take over without delaying medical research.