How Do The Contributions Of Animal Testing To Global Medical

In our ever-changing world the race to find the best technological advancements has never been higher. Progress within the medical field has changed drastically in the last 50 years. “Health is driven by the technologies that cure the unhealthy. These technologies need to advance along with an advancing society. In the last five decades new and improved, less expensive, medicine has been produced” (Leonard). Behind all this advanced medicine are the technologies, or creatures, that are used to test and improve the medicine. Animals are used to test the drugs and medicine that are in route to be produced for human use. “The term "Animal Testing" refers to procedures performed on living animals for purposes of research into basic biology and diseases, assessing the effectiveness of new medicinal products” (Humane Society). There are people who side with, and agree that animal testing improves the lives of humans, and there are individuals who believe the harm this research brings to animals is unreasonable and can be prevented.

As of 2015, 200 to 225 million animals are said to used in laboratory research for the biomedical industry annually worldwide. Typically defended by arguments of reliability and human health benefits, recently the question of ethics and values placed on animal testing have caused it to become a relevant and pressing topic that has been more widely discussed and debated. First off, the laboratory conditions that are instigated upon millions of animal models for the sake of medical research has been said to be unethical and cruel. Additionally, it has been debated that the results of animal experimentation are unreliable across a wide range of areas. Lastly, animal testing not only leads away from the direction of resources from more effective testing methods but also prolongs the duration of time humans may need to wait for an effective cure. Therefore, the potential benefits of animal experimentation are greatly outweighed by the risks and collective harm of humans and animals which is why resources should be directed towards more human-based testing procedures.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics records the use of roughly 26 million animals per year for animal testing. These test reports in many cases are poor. Although animals were greatly used in the past the effects of treatments on animals and humans can’t be compared. The human body, reactions to toxins, and usefulness of treatments is different because we are different, “While animal’s maybe ‘whole models,’ states Dr. Aysha Akhtar, MD,” they are the wrong whole model because of interspecies differences.” Testing animals for human treatments should not continue to be practiced.

Throughout the years the use of animals in medical research has been a hot debate around the world. Although animal testing may be cruel and inhumane, thousands of humans are saved thanks to the research that animals supply researchers with. Animals testing have taken over our knowledge of medicine and treatments to a whole different level. Animal testing also does this in a cheap and effective way. Without animals testing out knowledge wouldn’t be up to date, in other words animals’ testing is good.

A Necessary Evil?” written by Danielle Paterson, a pre-vet student at James Madison University argues that animal testing should be stopped. Paterson explains the cruelty behind animal experimentation. To oppose her argument, a 2016 article by the title of “Medical Experiments on Animals Are an Important Element of Drug Development” written by Geraldine Wagner, a graduate of the state university of New York argues the importance of animal

For many years, the field of science has used animals in medical experiments worldwide, because of this innocent animals are being killed everyday. They are being tested with new drugs, new treatments, and by many makeup companies. Connecticut recently celebrated the passage of the “Beagle Freedom Law”, a law that requires laboratories to work with charities and rescue groups to find homes for research cats and dogs. Animals are being tested so humans do not have to be but animal tests do not reliably predict results in human beings, although animals are the closest thing to humans. Most experiments involving animals are flawed, wasting the lives of innocent animal subjects. Over 100 million animals suffer a year from testing. Testing animals is a lot more expensive than alternative methods and it is wasting government research dollars. Animal testing is not only a bad idea, but it is also inhuman and it should not be tolerated. The FDA should stop allowing animal testing. An animal does not give out the same results on a test than a human would.

Animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments for humans. In the last century, nearly all the medical breakthroughs, for finding cures and treatment for diseases, were directly from animal testing. Animal testing first began in 129 A D with a Greek doctor named Galen. Galen’s main focus for conducting animal testing was to advance the understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Scientists have been doing animal testing for various reasons, from finding cures to diseases to testing makeup to see if the makeup is safe for human use. Animal testing has been good for humans, but not much for the animals being tested on. While many people do not agree with animal testing because of the high risks

Whether animal testing is considered to be useful or unnecessary in the development of medicine is an ongoing discussion. Animal testing is the issue Andrew Rowan and Jack Botting with Adrian Morrison discuss in both their articles. “Avoiding Animal Testing” was written in 2011 by Andrew Rowan and was published in The Scientist. Jack Botting along with Adrian Morrison are the authors of “Animals are Vital to Medicine,” which was published in the Scientific American. All three authors clearly state their position on this issue from the beginning of their articles, starting with each of their titles. In “Avoiding Animal

Animal testing is a substantial controversy across the nation. According to Rush, Catherine M. et al. “Animal Models to Investigate the Pathogenesis of Rheumatic Heart Disease.” Frontiers in Pediatrics 2 (2014): 116. PMC. Web. 27 Oct. 2016., animal testing has been around for quite some time. Her article states that “Animals have been used repeatedly throughout the history of biomedical research. Early Greek physician-scientists, such as Aristotle, (384 – 322 BC) and Erasistratus, (304 – 258 BC), performed experiments on living animals. Likewise, Galen (129 – 199 / 217 AD), a Greek physician who practiced in Rome and was a giant in the history of medicine, conducted animal experiments to advance the understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), an Arab physician in twelfth century Moorish Spain, introduced animal testing as an experimental method for testing surgical procedures before applying them to human patients.”

Animals that are put forward to medical experimentation contribute to cures and treatments that have saved many lives. The California Biomedical Research Association states that “nearly every medical breakthrough in the last 100 years has resulted directly from research using animals.” (California Biomedical Research Association). Animals that are used for these tests have contributed incredible discoveries on unimaginable areas starting on Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Heart Disease/Stroke, Diabetes, Birth Defects, and Spinal Cord Injuries. Animal testing has made medical discoveries to go from antibiotics to blood transfusions, from

We often see animal testing as an inhumane act of cruelty, however, we do not recognize the benefits and reasoning behind it all. After carefully studying the reasoning behind animals in medical research, I was appalled by the numerous beneficial outcomes. Research professionals tells us “Medical testing on animals has provided humans with an understanding of how body reacts to certain medications, diseases, or vaccines (animalresearch.info).” Without conducting such research, humans would have no further advancements in medicine, nor any knowledge of their effects. Have you ever noticed the prominence of commercials advertising a new medication? Whether it was a new birth control, blood thinner, or vaccine, more than likely, an animal was used to test the medicine. Animal Smart researchers explains how “Vaccines such as smallpox, measles, mumps, diphtheria and tetanus would have taken much longer to develop without the use of animal research (animal smart). Such diseases would have taken the lives of many young children and adults if there were no

Animal testing, because of its links to animal cruelty, causes many people to question whether it should be outlawed. Without animal testing in medical field, medical research would not have the vaccinations in use today that saves lives every minute. Galen, a European physician in 200 AD, used animal experimentation to understand and comprehend the complexity of the human body. Even in today’s time, the human body is a mystery and things happen that physicians cannot explain or understand.

Dr. Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute, “we have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans” (Using Animals 2). “Terminally ill patients don’t care whether a cancer drug works on a mouse, or that some disease can be cured in another species. Such claims only taunt them with false hope. These people need real cures based on real science—not misleading and antiquated animal experiments” (Pycroft, Martson 3). Often times researchers claim that animal testing is essential to find information about humans regarding medical reasons. However, scientists linked cholesterol with heart disease through Epidemiology, not animal testing. When researchers thought radio keratotomy was impeccable through animals, the first humans were blinded (Greek 1). Some of the animals held in research centers are not even being used. Michael Markarian, officer of the United States Humane Society declares most of the chimpanzees held in the laboratories owned by the United States are not even being used for current research! They are just suffering in cages for years and years for no reason (Animal Experimentation 1). The Journal of the American Medical Association, “Patients and physicians should remain cautious about extrapolating the finding of prominent animal research to the care of human disease… poor replication of even the high-quality animal studies should be expected by those who conduct clinical research” (Using Animals

The article, “Limitations and Dangers,” written by NEAVS, explores the shortcomings of practical animal testing and the risks posed to human health. According to the article, the exorbitant costs of testing a new drug are accumulated when said drug needs to go through multiple rounds of testing before being deemed safe enough for human trials; the phrase “time is money” is an entirely true statement in the medical research industry. The amount of time needed to complete testing could potentially require billions of dollars, as seen with common rat testing to determine a substance's carcinogenic properties. Such tests will take, “up to five years from planning to evaluation and review, at a cost of up to more than $4 million per substance” (“Limitations”). The inefficiency in cost and time required make it difficult to thoroughly evaluate the potential effects of more than 100,000 chemicals currently sold worldwide, as well as the millions of combinations of these chemicals (“Costs”). In addition to the cost of proctoring the tests, the cost of purchasing the animals needs to be factored into whether this practice is economically solid. Evidence suggests that animal testing has continued despite its limitations because for-profit commercial interests are giving the animal research industry the financial motivation needed to continue. Research facilities require massive amounts of money to not only conduct tests, but to purchase and raise animals , such as, ”The Jackson Laboratory—’a leading mammalian genetics research center’— [who] sold 2.9 million mice for a profit of $98.7 million” (“Limitations”) in 2010. Clearly, exorbitant costs associated with using the outdated methods of animal testing are not

Animals have been used all throughout history to test the effectiveness of medicines. Rachel Hajar discusses the history of this controversial issue. Early Greek scientists performed various experiments on animals to advance their understanding of anatomy, physiology, and other sciences. Some scientists even performed surgical procedures on animals before performing them on humans. Based on this history, we can say that it is necessary to preform experiments to advance knowledge, although those against animal testing claim the benefit to humans does not justify the harm to animals.