Animal testing is used frequently among the field of research to identify new cures of the modern science field to help cure disease, find cures, or simply identify variables in a theory. Yet, it is brought to question: is it morally wrong to test another living organism that is not a human being? Billions of animals lose their lives each year due to animal testing. Animals should be attributed to help enhance the fields of Psychological Research as long the experiments have a higher gain value than the level of cruelty that is imposed upon the animals that are being used for testing. Although the line between what is considered an effective research or pain caused for human financial benefit; there are two mindsets that are pointed out to continue animal research: the scientific view and the ethical view. But, most importantly to identify the purposes of a choice done by ethical egoism and contractarianism to benefit individuals financially and instead have utilitarianism content of moral norms to use on the animal research field.
Animal research has been going on for thousands of years. It is estimated that in the U.S that about 26 million animals are used for testing and experiments each year. Animals are used to find treatments for diseases, test medication, and test products to see if they are safe for human use. People might say that animal testing has help with the creation of live saving treatments for humans and animals. Others, like me, believe that some of the test performed on animals may be cruel and inhumane. In this essay I am going to show the pros and cons of animal research to get a better understanding for this practice.
This report explores the main arguments both for and against animal experimentation. The report begins with an introduction briefly outlining what animal experimentation refers to, introducing the three perspectives and highlighting the intention behind this investigation.
Meanwhile there is some strong cons: The bad treatment animals suffer some through experiments is really horrible like being deprived or
Animal experimentation remains serious problems in our society. Some people treat animals as pets and others use them to develop technology. In recent years, animals are used in order to make sure that products are safe enough to be used for humans. Also new effective medical treatments have been effectively developed because of animal experiments. However, people are using animals to satisfy their own desires and they do not consider the rights of animals that were sacrificed for animal experiment. People should know that the animals used in animal experimentation are worthier than the benefits that people can earn from it. Animals should not be used in the experiments for the following reasons; it is a
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” (Mahatma Gandhi). Scientists have been using animals for biomedical research for centuries. They provide a source to get information scientists can not get without harming humans. A lot of debate is spread about whether it is good or bad. Animal experimentation is a controversial topic because it is helpful to humans, but it is also cruel and inhumane.
Animals should not be used for scientific experiments. According to ‘Should Animals Be Used for Scientific or Commercial Testing?’ Animals are so different from human beings that research
This is a sensitive issue area in regards to research. There are many types of research that just are not feasible to do with human subjects; therefore the justification for non-human animals come into the experiment. Even though there are many benefits to using animals, many animal rights groups maintain strong opposition to using animals for research. This is why the APA has developed the Committee on Animal Research and Ethics (CARE). It is the responsibility of CARE to audit that all ethics regarding animal usage is followed (“Committee on animal,” 2014). Due to the sensitivity of testing on animals the APA has developed very strict standards regarding usage of animals as subjects. They range from justification, housing of said animal, acquisition, and procedures. These requirements outline absolute necessity in order to reduce the unnecessary usage of animals in testing.
Risks are not morally transferable to those who do not choose to take them" (qtd. in Orlans 26). Animals do not willingly sacrifice themselves for the advancement of human welfare and new technology. Their decisions are made for them because they cannot vocalize their own preferences and choices. When humans decide the fate of animals in research environments, the animals' rights are taken away without any thought of their well-being or the quality of their lives. Therefore, animal experimentation should be stopped because it violates the rights of animals.
There are over 26 million different types of animal being tested on for research each year in the United States. Animals are used for testing every year for human research. Different animals go through serious pain, in order for humans to facilitate growth in different fields of study. Many animals are used in order to study diseases and potential cures for the diseases. New research chemicals are tested on animals with similar structures to humans, to see if the medicine can help with certain diseases. Tons of scientific advancement has taken place because of animal testing. Without animal testing, many diseases would still exist, without a safe way to test for potential cures. The issue at hand is the type of treatment that animals have to endure because of the different testing methods. They are treated very poorly, go through intense suffering, and normally have very poor living conditions. A pro to animal testing is that many cures and different medicines have been developed through animal testing. Without animal testing, many diseases would still exist without cures. Secondly, animals have a much shorter life span than humans do, so scientists can study the results through the whole life span of the animal. With humans, it is hard to do a full test because we have such high lifespans, while animals tend to live a lot less longer. Thirdly, many animals have been saved because of animal testing. Many diseases animals deal with now have vaccines and cures, as a result of animal testing. Without it, many animals would have rabies or other types of virus that can be detrimental to the animal’s health. On the contrary, a con to animal testing would be the pain many animals go through as a result of the testing. The tests are experimental, so we don’t know exactly what the chemical drug will do to the animal. Many cases have turned bad and many animals have died as a result, or gone through extensive pain. Next, there are many alternative methods of experimental testing that doesn’t require animals. As a result, why are we still using animals for testing when there are other ways to do it. Finally, animals are different from humans, so they make poor testing subjects. We can’t know for sure how the research
There are many pro and cons with the matter. A pro may be considered to be that “Animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments,” according to an article. A con can be considered to be that “Animals can suffer like humans do, so it is speciesism to experiment on them while we refrain from experimenting on humans.” (Should Animals be used for Scientific or Commercial Testing? 2017) Using animals can cause scientist to use misleading information and avoid finding cures, just because drugs pass tests on animals doesn’t mean that it is safe for humans to use either. Even though the human body anatomy is occasionally closer to the test subjects doesn’t mean that the results are accurate. This is taking advantage of animals when scientist use misleading information to do more test on
There was a quote that I found which related my feelings on the issue written by Richard Mc Carty (1998) that reads “many of the most important developments in psychology over the past century have been linked to or informed by research with animals”. There is no denying the importance of this research and that it should continue and usually researchers are far more interested in studying human behavior than they are in animal behavior. There are many reasons why researchers use animals. Firstly, animals make it possible to gain control over the influence of heredity. Because, many animals are purchased from research supply companies, which means that there is history of genetics. This helps to substantially reduce the likely hood of genetic differences from one participant to another, an important factor when looking at variabilities of behavior. So, theoretically researchers can reduce genetic variability in humans by studying
The essence of the issues is if animals are being subjected to medical research against their will; is liable to say that we don’t place a high value on living things that are outside our human race? Subjecting animals to experiments that we would not consider ethically feasible to apply to humans. There are limitations that are placed legally to protect humanity. When considering animals for experimentation, there are no legal guidelines that restrict scientists from harming them. Ascribing animals to a lower moral status because of their lack of intelligence, communication skills, and human relations; taking advantage of them are quite easy. “According to the “Moral Theory of Animals, “there are two types of approaches that support this idea. One approach starts from the position that the interests of animals, particularly in avoiding suffering, should be taken into account when judging whether it is acceptable to use them for medical purposes that benefit human beings. The second approach argues that animals, like human beings, have rights that must be respected when considering their use for such purposes.” (Stanford
The first reason animals shouldn’t be used for scientific experimentation is because it is a cruel practice. Majority of the animals that are tested on are poorly treated. According to peta.org, “U.S. law allows animals to be burned, shocked, isolated, starved, drowned, addicted to drugs, and brain damaged.” Harming animals like this can have extremely negative effects on them and their future lives. It can affect the way they live physically and mentally. Neavs.org says, “It can cause severe suffering, such as long term social isolation...They spend their lives in barren cages, unable to make choices, or express natural behavior.” These animals don’t have a say in how they’re treated in these experiments, and the conditions that they’re put in are life-threatening.
Animal experimentation by scientists can be cruel and unjust, but at the same time it can provide long term benefits for humanity. Animals used in research and experiments have been going on for 2,000 years and keep is going strong. It is a widely debated about topic all over the world. Some say it is inhuman while others say it’s for the good of human kind. There are many different reasons why people perform experiments and why others total disagree with it.