Against Animal Testing - Essay Example
I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t …. The pain which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, and it is to me sufficient justification of my enmity without looking further” – Mark Twain
According to Alex Gordon’s 2005 book, Animal rights: The argument of animal testing, animal testing was first discovered in 1859 by Charles Darwin to help him understand the human body. Since then, animals have been subjected to millions of test each and every year (p. 2). Everything from perfume to hand soap is tested on animals to see if it cause any harmful effects to humans. Animal testing involves inducing chemicals or substances onto the animal’s skin, pouring chemicals down the animal’s throat, and even putting chemicals into the animal’s eyes. This type of testing is useless and unnecessary, especially considering the fact that animals might react differently to certain chemicals than humans would. A prominent example would be Thalidomide. Thalidomine was a drug that came out of the Germany throughout the sixties and seventies and was stated to be safely tested on thousands of animals. It was then marketed as a wonder drug; an amazing drug which sedated or smoothed pregnant mothers in pain and supposedly could cause no harm to either the mother or the fetus. Despite this numerous testing on animals, tens of thousands of children whose mothers had used this drug were born with severe deformities such as mental retardation and blindness. As one can see, the testing of drugs on animals is not only morally wrong, but can, and will, endanger the lives of millions of humans and animals alike all over the world. The following argument will be enhanced by the differences between humans and animals, the inhumanity served towards animals, alternative methods to animal testing, and numerous problems with animal testing.
To begin, animal testing should be
According to Alex Gordon’s 2005 book, Animal rights: The argument of animal testing, animal testing was first discovered in 1859 by Charles Darwin to help him understand the human body. Since then, animals have been subjected to millions of test each and every year (p. 2). Everything from perfume to hand soap is tested on animals to see if it cause any harmful effects to humans. Animal testing involves inducing chemicals or substances onto the animal’s skin, pouring chemicals down the animal’s throat, and even putting chemicals into the animal’s eyes. This type of testing is useless and unnecessary, especially considering the fact that animals might react differently to certain chemicals than humans would. A prominent example would be Thalidomide. Thalidomine was a drug that came out of the Germany throughout the sixties and seventies and was stated to be safely tested on thousands of animals. It was then marketed as a wonder drug; an amazing drug which sedated or smoothed pregnant mothers in pain and supposedly could cause no harm to either the mother or the fetus. Despite this numerous testing on animals, tens of thousands of children whose mothers had used this drug were born with severe deformities such as mental retardation and blindness. As one can see, the testing of drugs on animals is not only morally wrong, but can, and will, endanger the lives of millions of humans and animals alike all over the world. The following argument will be enhanced by the differences between humans and animals, the inhumanity served towards animals, alternative methods to animal testing, and numerous problems with animal testing.
To begin, animal testing should be