Animal Testing: Right or Wrong

Introduction

Nowadays, animal testing is a subject that commonly occurs. Some people think it is needed in research, meanwhile others think it is not allowed to sacrifice animals for sciences because they are treated badly during their lifetime. Although some opponents do not consider the fact that animals are also used in the food industry. Laboratory animals are breed for sciences and will guarantee improvements in this field, so everyone would benefit from it. In particular, pharmaceutical, medical and cosmetic industries and household companies can improve their products by testing them on animals, leading to a better life quality and more satisfied customers.There are different types of animal testing and these are medical testing, where scientists use the animals to see if any medicines will work on us to help find a cure for an illness, and maybe one day a cure for cancer. The other type of animal testing is cosmetic testing, which is just where they test make-up and cosmetics on animals to see for example if it would irritate our eyes or cause a bad reaction. Industries do testing on animals to avoid testing products on humans; there are much higher liability risks if a human is injured as opposed to a test animal. In this paper, we will discuss the animal testing and argue whether animal testing is right or wrong practice.

Discussion

Animal Testing is the controlled use of laboratory animals for medical and scientific reasons. Laboratory animals are being used by scientists for the investigation of biological process of animals and humans, for drug testing, surgical and vaccines techniques and to analyze the safety of various chemicals that are being used in cosmetics, pesticides and other products for human being (Hayhurst, Chris, pp. 19-30). Animal testing is done for a number of reasons within the medical, scientific and cosmetic industries; the practice of animal testing raises a number of ethical flags, since it causes harm to living things.

Advocates of animal testing argue that medical advances that have occurred over the centuries are thanks to animal research. Treatments for heart disease provides a good example, such as open heart surgery in which machines control the circulatory functions for a limited time to replace the functions of heart and lung or coronary bypass which improves flow of blood to the muscles of heart, and provides the alternate of a inactive heart valve. The equipment and techniques for renal dialysis have also become possible because of animal experimentation (Athanasiou, Debad, and Darzi, pp. 231-233). Over thirty drugs for the treatment of cancer and radiation therapies against cancer were tested first in mice and rats. The vaccines against smallpox, measles, diphtheria and others dreadful diseases in the past were prepared by animal experimentation. Blood transfusions, microsurgery to reattach severed limbs, organ transplants and other processes that save many lives each year have become possible by animal experimentation. Beside this there is also another fact that not only humans but also cats, dogs and other pets and farm animals have benefited from such researches, the ...