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Animal Testing Essay

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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.
Virtue theory is more of a selfish ethics since one’s growth and development are seen as an end in itself and doesn’t consider how one’s actions affect others. Thus, in relation to animal ethics and experimentation, animals shouldn’t be considered since they cannot discern between what …show more content…

It is always said that animals are used for experimentation because genetically they are closest to human beings but if they are this closely related, why are we abusing and torturing them? This is affected ignorance. In her article, “Affected Ignorance and Animal Suffering” Nancy Williams talks about different forms of affected ignorance. One form stood out more than others, “when people refuse to acknowledge the connection between their actions and the consequent suffering of their victims.” The experiments performed on animals are said to be beneficial to those animals, but studies have shown that animal testing could mislead researchers into ignoring cures and treatments. There are chemicals beneficial to human beings but harmful or ineffective to animals, such as aspirin (Akhtar). There are some medicines that have been tested on animals that provide benefits to these animals but when used in human testing, the results were less than great. For example, the drug thalidomide, which was a sleeping pill used in the 1950s, caused severe birth defects in ten thousand newborns. However, when the drug was tested on pregnant animals such as mice, rats, guinea pigs, cats, and hamsters there was no birth defects unless given at an extremely high dosage (Greek). The use of animals in experiments are unreliable when it comes to testing …show more content…

If the argument is that animals are being used for testing medicines because they are similar to human beings, shouldn’t the logic follow that because they are so similar to human beings and in need, we should care for them as well. Although, this is generally not the case. Researchers justify their experiments using the Animal Welfare Act or AWA saying that because of this act there are laws in place to stop the mistreatment of animals. Unfortunately, for some animals used in experimentation such as rats, mice, fish, and birds which make up roughly ninety-five percent of all animals used, they are not protected under this act. According to the Animal Welfare Act in 2016 they covered 820,812 animals (APHIS), which means there were about twenty-five million animals that were not covered by the AWA. Because of this lack of coverage, these animals are more likely to be abused and mistreated since they lack basic protection. Due to the new guidelines in the UK researchers like Thomas Genarelli won’t be able to continue their abuse.
Animal experimentations, like many things, cost money. Researchers need large budgets for everything including the animals, however since they are desperate to get results and keep their grants they underestimate the amount of animals needed for testing which results in the tests being inconclusive and wasting the lives of the animals used in that

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