Animal Rights - Why Animal Testing Is Ethically Correct Animal testing has played a key role in many scientific and medical advances (Festing & Wilkinson, 2007). These advances include new medicines, treatments and life-saving research. Animal testing is essential component to save lives and allow people to enjoy a greater quality of life and is therefore, ethically correct. Animal testing is ethically correct because animals do not have the same rights as humans and therefore it is acceptable to use them for research(Rown, 1997). As human beings we have the right to be free from harm and/or the threat of harm; physical or psychological. (Unknown). Currently few animals have any rights. This shows us that in our society animals are considered to have a lesser value than humans. From a legal standpoint, this means that they do not have the right to be protected from harm, thus making it ethical to use them as research subjects …show more content…
(Andre & Velasquez, 2010). The question we must ask ourselves is, why should we limit scientific experimentation to animals? If we experiment on animals because of their limited cognitive capabilities does this mean that we should also experiment on human individuals that have limited cognitive capabilities? The definition of a person is a being with consciousness, rational thought, and a moral sense.(cite) Are people that are limited cognitively not deserving of human rights that protect them against experimentation? These are very uncomfortable questions to ask ourselves because we still see these individuals as “people”. We as humans are morally obligated to protect those of us that cannot protect ourselves. This is why we do not do scientific testing on
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.
“It is a simple fact that many, if not most, of today’s modern medical miracles would not exist if experimental animals had not been available to medical scientists. It is equally a fact that, should we as a society decide the use of animal subjects is ethically unacceptable and therefore must be stopped, medical progress will slow to a snail’s pace. Such retardation will in itself have a huge ethical ‘price tag’ in terms of continued human and animal suffering from problems such as diabetes, cancer, degenerative cardiovascular diseases, and so forth.”
Imagine a life locked away in a cage with no form of control on your existence. It’s cold, dark, and you are scared. You don’t have a choice of what you eat, where you live, or how you are treated. You are unsure if it is day or night or what will happen to you next. You are locked away in a prison cell and you committed no crime. This is the life of a laboratory animal. Animal testing is the use of animals for scientific research purposes and experiments. It can be used for the findings of cures and medicines to testing new drugs, to understanding the behavioral psychology of the animals themselves. “Around fifty to one hundred million vertebrate animals, ranging from fish to primates, are used in experiments each year” (Lloyd). There are
From when you are a baby to when you are an adult animal testing is used in your everyday products. From the Pampers you put on as a baby and the Johnson and Johnson you are washed with. To when you are older the Febreeze, Sunsilk, and Gillette you use.( Companies That do Test on Animals) Animal testing surrounds you in every act of life. “The guess is around 100 million animals are used worldwide in animal testing.” (Animal Rights) Animal testing is rooted from natural curiosity. How the insides of a living organism operate and look is an interesting idea. Because of the fact that dissection of humans was illegal by the Roman Church, animals were the second best option for knowledge of living organisms. (Animal Testing) The debate
Most of the animals use in research are not protected by the Animal Welfare Act. Those animals like birds and mice are not protected because for the federal law, these animals are not in the animal category. The worst part of this is that those animals that are not protected are the ones most often used for testing. This animals are tortured in many ways and law does not do anything to protect them. In fact, even the animals that are protected by the AWA are harmed. They are exposed to a lot of harmful procedures. It have been cases were the same animals harm their selves due to all the stress they have to pass by. Imagine how much stress one need to be to be able to cause pain to itself.
Scientists say that it is beneficial to humans to test out all these products and drugs on animals but they always seem to leave out the part about how it would be even more beneficial to test things on ourselves. I think the real reason we sacrifice hundreds of thousands of animals lives to possibly save a few human is because we view ourselves as more superior to rats, mice, dogs, pigs, monkeys, etc. Even though in an Associate Press survey “2/3 of Americans surveyed said an animal’s right are just as important as a humans”, nobody would die in place of a rodent. Many people think that humans are smarter than all other animals and that’s why their lives can be sacrificed, but KoKo the gorilla has an IQ of 80, which is only twenty points lower than the average human (The Rights of Animals). That means that no one can factor in intelligence level for who partakes in food and medical experiments because most mentally challenged people have a lower I Q than KoKo the gorilla. Besides, an intelligent person doesn’t suffer from pain differently
Researchers treat animals right because they use them to uncover cures and treatment that humans can use. Scientist Hollis Cline and Mar Sanchez stated, “that animals in research are treated “humanely and with dignity” (Garner, 2016). These two scientists reassured the reader that animals subjected to testing are treated with respect. They are not treated in bad testing conditions, which may harm the animals and manipulate the outcome of the test. In addition to these scientists claim, there are also laws protecting animals, such as “federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)” (ProCon, 2017). Treating these animals with dignity is correct by the researchers because the animal is sacrificing his/her freedom to the outside world so it can be experiment on to find medical treatments and cures for
Most of the procedures we have these days are there because animal testing has helped in developing it. In addition, when new treatments should be developed, there is no safer and more accurate way to prove it harmless than testing with animals. Although there are certain alternatives such as computers, undoubtedly for human rights scientists should choose the assured and guaranteed way of animal testing. Therefore, until a suitable substitution as exact and as precise as testing with animals appear, animal testing shall be mandatory. Animal rights should be protected, but it is not only animals that need to survive: we, as human beings, have the right, not a privilege, to live a healthy
Millions of animals suffer due to effects of testing they must endure. This testing is usually done unethically and causes major harm. It’s wrong to harm animals for the sake of testing products for society. Furthermore, animals are living creatures just like humans and should not be treated differently. While testing animals may be cheaper, it is morally wrong and causes many harmful side effects in animals.
Initially you might believe that animals have moral rights. Animals tested are don’t even have the mental capacity to comprehend different objects, let alone what they’re going through. They just have similar features of a human, which outside of this scenario would be completely useless. Another argument might be how testing doesn’t have guaranteed results, but hurts organisms in the process. While this is true, testing has an 83.7% success rate, while taking in consideration animals that were too weak to live past a few hours. Taking note of how only a few hundred animals are tested on a year, that 16.3% is a minimal amount. This is all for the better of humans, and even animals. After all, animal products are created off of these tests too. The death of a few animals, is better for us, and the rest of
Have you ever wondered why animals are used in experimentation? Each year over 100 million are killed due to experiments for biology lessons, medical training, chemical, drug, food, cosmetic testing, and curiosity driven experimentation. The better question is why? Why use animal when there are many alternatives. Animals may not be able to speak up for themselves but humans have a voice for them. Many people have participated in protest, taken surveys, and created organizations to protect animals from the cruelty.
Animal experimentation has been at the forefront of brain research for decades. Rats, mice, rabbits, dogs, pigs, and monkeys are all used to develop drugs and treatments to benefit humans. Even though animal brains do not precisely mimic the biology of the human brain, their brains have many of the same basic structures and functions. Animal research, that is, the use of animals as experimental subjects in biomedical and behavioural fields of learning, has been institutionalised on the basis of two key assumptions, one factual and one moral. The factual assumption is that animal research provides a reliable basis for predicting the effects of drugs, products and yield significant scientific conclusions and medical benefits for society. The
Imagine this, you and a big group of people are stuck in the desert and there's no water in sight.You send a young man to look for water in the burning hot sun.He finds a lifesaving amount of water miles from everyone else .Then he brings it back to the people saving their lives but risking his own.Even though the man's life was risked, you saved more people than you hurt.This is what animal testing does.Animal testing saves thousands of lives every single day.
Animal testing is used for scientific or commercial uses. Warm blooded animals , such as bunnies and mice, are used as subjects for makeup and household products. According to the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) it is legal for animal testing in the United States. Animal Testing should be banned unless the Animal has no more life in them.
Humans are animals, and as such it is morally wrong to use them to test pharmaceuticals intended for use by humans. Those who support animal experimentation believe it is a necessary evil, in part due to the false information put out by the media. The so-called benefits of animal testing have not helped humans for years, yet in many countries the law still requires researchers use animals to test their medications. In fact, although alternatives have been found, few steps have been taken to put an end to animal experimentation. Unfortunately, the way the activists present their argument that is one main reason they are not taken seriously, even though their points are valid. Animal testing is morally wrong and has not benefited humans as the media has claimed, but there are alternatives, such as new technology, if only humans would take the first step.