The Animal Being Tested Essay

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.

Animal Testing is when people use animals in experiments, to test their reaction to what is being tested. The range of animals used in testing is from tens of millions to more than a hundred million used annually. There has been much debate about this topic, because, animals are the most reliable sources to use, especially mice, because we share 95% of our genes with them, which makes them the most common animals to use. Although, many people think animal testing is crude and inaccurate science, but the other hand is, would we rather use humans?

Using animals for medical experimentation and education is a controversial subject that often leads to a heated debate. The issues are complex, but the suffering and waste involved in animal experimentation are painfully obvious. Vivisection, the act of cutting into a live animal, has led the nation down countless scientific dead ends, while detracting funds and attention from more applicable scientific research. The practice of animal experimentation at NYU continues, not because it has been proven to be an accurate and reliable means of research (which it has not) but rather, because of tradition and promotion from those with strong vested interests (i.e. Lynne Kiorpes). These values have

Specific Purpose – To persuade my audience that animal testing is wrong and how other safer alternatives should be taken.

are not able to give consent for this as would be required of a human. Other

Facilities that use animals for teaching, experimentations, surgery or testing purposes are known as research facilities. Currently, there are twelve animal research facilities in the state of Alabama ("General Information on Animal Research"). There are many different reasons why animals are used for research. Animals are used to test the products used in cosmetics, for biomedical research, for military defense and food production. Many people including the general public, scientists and government officials do not necessarily agree to the terms and conditions to which these animals are used for testing

History---- An estimated 26 million animals are used every year in the United States for scientific and commercial testing. Animals are used to develop medical treatments, determine the toxicity of medications, check the safety of products destined for human use, and other biomedical, commercial, and health care uses. Research on living animals has been practiced since at least 500 BC.In the 1940s, Jonas Salk used rhesus monkey to cross-contamination studies to isolate the three forms of the polio virus that affected hundreds of thousands yearly.Salk's team created a vaccine against the strains of polio in cell cultures of rhesus monkey kidney cells. The vaccine was made

Vivisection, surgery conducted on a living organism for experimentative purposes, dates back to 2nd-century Rome. It was pioneered by Claudius Galenus, more commonly known as Galen of Pergamon, who experimented on animals to understand the human body. However, Galen was a poor scientist and failed to recognize major bodily functions like blood circulation (Osborn). In fact, Galen’s false assumptions hindered the medical progress in Europe. From its origin, vivisection has proven to be an inaccurate method for experimentation; thus, ending this practice and adopting a new, more practical procedure is the practical route to take.

Animal testing has become a controversial issue among many people in the world today. Some of these people involved in this controversial debate believe that animal testing is unethical and should be replaced by other methods. The other group of people in this debate believe that animal testing is necessary in order to research new products that cannot be tested on humans. Traditional animal testing forces animals to undergo numerous experiments for different forms of research. Medical, cosmetic, and many other types of research experiments use animals to provide the results on how the new product may affect humans. There are many people that support the use of alternative methods to animal research and then

Millions of animals are being unneedlessly tested on for cosmetics, even though there are plenty of alternatives available and most of the results are unreliable or not applicable to humans. Although the fight against animal testing has made huge progress recently, America has yet to stop this cruel practice and chooses to torture animals while other countries are making a stop to the testing (“Animal Testing 101”).

I would not approve this case. In his proposal, Professor King states that “control animals will be subjected to sham surgery.” This is not acceptable. According to the Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research, “In general, laboratory animals should not be subjected to successive survival surgical procedures, except as required by the nature of the research, the nature of the specific surgery, or for the well-being of the animal.” The sham surgery is not necessary to see if the surgery actually works or not. This case in my opinion, backed by the guidelines, is not approved.

“More than 100 million animals are killed in U.S laboratories each year” (Using). This is an example of overuse and inhumane animal testing, alternatives could be pursued but animal testing is routine. Scientific discoveries could have been made without the use of animals testing. These examples describe why animal testing is unnecessary, and should not be used in our world today. Animal testing is inhumane and has alternatives, it also does not benefit medical research.

In the Quran and in its sayings and the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) sayings we understand that testing on animals is halal, because in this way we can have lower percentage of people passing away.

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.

“Beauty without cruelty” is the outcry that can be heard from animal right activists around the world. The FDA does not require companies to perform tests on animals but if the cosmetic product contains chemicals that can be seen as toxins, testing becomes a necessity. There are currently thirteen safety tests that are performed on animals.