Animal Testing : Is It Right?

It is no secret that millions of animals a year are used for medical experimentation. One study “found the number of animals tested rose from 1,566,994 in 1997 to 2,705,772 in 2012” (Casey). It is my belief that researchers use virtue theory to defend their experimentations. While animal activists approach experimentation through the ethics of care. I am against animal experimentation, but I will also provide insight into why people believe it is ethically just.

There has been a lot of animal testing in the United States and thousands of animals already have been killed. In research and testing, animals are subjected to experiments that can include everything from testing new drugs, poisoning for toxicity testing, burning skin, causing brain damage, implanting electrodes into the brain, maiming, blinding, and other painful and invasive procedures. Animal testing should not be allowed to proceed because millions of animals are getting killed, the results aren't always right, and it is more expensive to test it on animals.

“Lots of people talk to animals…Not very many listen, though…That’s the problem”(Ben Hoffman). The controversy of animal testing is phenomenal; it always has been. I remember dissecting animals throughout my years of school in the "name of science". It was only until recently that I started questioning the government 's methods to teach us. We dissected a dog shark in my oceanography class last year. There had to been at least 80 dead sharks in about four different buckets; that was when it crossed the line. I understood a lamb eye or something, but breeding sharks in captivity just so they can be killed? Animal testing is wrong in every way to me.

Jeremy Bentham once said, “The question is not, ‘Can they reason?’ nor, ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they suffer?’” Animal testing is becoming a conflict right now and I believe that Animal testing should be stopped because it is cruel and inhuman, Alternative testing technologies exist, the lack of reliability, and it is expensive. Another quote once said was by Martin Luther King Jr stating “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake” That quote is saying why do wrong when right can be done, especially when people and animals are involved. Animals have feelings and enjoy life as much as humans do so keeping them in captivity and testing drugs on them is cruel and inhuman.

The controversy behind animals as research subjects is mainly one of morals and the ethical treatment of said animals. Many people believe we should use them in this way, so we aren 't actually harming people in the pursuit for better things for humans. Though animal testing was a viable resource for many years, it has proven to be extremely controversial and unethical, therefor the use of animals as research subjects should be outlawed.

Cohen argues that humans may morally use animals for biomedical research, the study of biological processes and disease, because animals lack rights. He defines rights as moral claims that one human can hold against another, which are bound in both law as well as in comprehension of right and wrong. As animals lack self-conscious placement in a higher ethical order with the ability to weigh needs of self against the needs of others, they therefore lack the ability to have rights. (Cohen 1986: p. 215) To support the morality of animal research, I will show how it has led to many successful treatments of disease in humans, due to the common physiology that we share with other animals. Furthermore, I will argue that the pain caused on research

Why should animals not have the same rights that humans do? Maybe because they cannot talk, read books, or drive cars, but neither can some humans for that matter. So why is it that when an experiment, which was conducted to help treat type 2 diabetes, killed 203 people, it was halted immediately, although millions of animals die each year due to scientific experimentation? The answer is that many believe that animals are worthless or are not worth as much as human beings are, so they are therefore dispensable. The problem with that is animals are living things just like humans. Therefore, like human beings, they understand fear and experience pain. They also feel excitement and happiness. So why should they be denied the same basic rights

I believe that animal testing is wrong because, the animals are treated inhumanely. Humans have no right to use animals like they are objects that can just be thrown away like they do not matter. These experiments result in extreme and torturous pain. Animals are brought into laboratories and tested on against their will. An estimate of almost twenty-six million animals is used every year in the United States for scientific and commercial testing. Animals are used to check the safety of product, determine how toxic medicines are, and to develop medical treatment. There are many non-animal test methods that can be used. These methods are more humane, they are also faster, and can be closer related to humans, they can also be cheaper than animal testing. “Huntingdon Life Science (HLS) kills an average of 500 animals each day for tests” (Kinship Circle). Sadly, many different species of animals have to indoor these terrible conditions and painful tests, such as, primates, rats, mice, dogs, and cats.

For decades, the question of ethics in using humans and animals for research has been a constant battle in the fields of science, medicine, and even cosmetics. According to the Animal Welfare Association, approximately 19,500,000 animals - including mice, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and frogs - are killed yearly on average due to research. Although more than 50% of adults in the United States are opposed to animal testing, many popular companies like Maybelline, Vaseline, Dove, and Windex choose to remain in the shadow of animal cruelty and use animals as expendable lab equipment.

Animal testing dates back all the way to Greek physician scientists like Aristotle and Erasistratus. Greek scientist conducted experiments to understand the anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology just like our scientists do today. The moral ethics of animal testing has always been questioned, but many cures and treatments have been found due to animal testing discoveries. Animal testing is necessary for humankind 's overall well being, as well as today 's society 's advancement to further the knowledge of the medical field.

In the early nineteenth century, animal experiments emerged as an important method of science and marked the birth of experimental physiology and neuroscience as we know it today. It has since become an issue of intense public controversy. Many individuals against animal experimentation claim that animals undoubtedly merit the same amount of consideration and respect as humans and should be treated on the basis of the principles of equality. However, there is significant evidence to suggest that there are some circumstances where it is justifiable to use animals in experimentations. The following paper will briefly identify the animal rights proponents which assert that sentience is morally relevant and that animals and humans should be

There was a man named Immanuel Kant, who once said, “He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” This paper will be covering the moral issue on animal testing and whether animal testing is right or wrong. I will be applying the theories of Deontological, Utilitarianism and Virtue Ethics viewpoints on animal testing and then see which moral issue is better.

Every year in the United States of America more than 100 million helpless animals will suffer and die from malicious chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics tests. Rabbits, Cats, birds, reptiles and amphibians are not covered by the minimal protections of the Animal Welfare Act, so they go unnoticed towards the millions of sufferers. Millions of rodents, birds, rabbits, primates, felines, canines, and other types of animals are locked inside barren cages in laboratories across the country. People have diverse opinions on animal testing and its morality. Morality refers to the standards of right and wrong shared in the society. We can define it as “human rights.” Ten moral traditions that all serious people accept are:

There are twenty-six million animals involuntarily tested on annually, that partake in horrendous experiments daily, to test production safety, but people don’t realize that there will always be a human tested on first. Animals have been used for the last fifty years for medical and drug research, and are supposedly able to serve as “models” for the human body, undertaking the hazardous conditions of the experiments. Animal testing is unethical and inhumane, and alternative testing methods should be more commonly used, medications and cures should be tested with more than vivisection methods to be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), primates shouldn’t be forced into extreme testing conditions any longer, and animal subjects used for experimentation in

Whether animal experimentation is justified or not has been undecided for many decades. Many years back, the debate was carried out by animal rights groups which were led by the Cambridge University to get rid of its plan for a primate research in 2004. Since this debate, many supporters have become more confident in speaking out what they believe and getting their points across to people.