Animal Testing Benefits

Animal testing is defined as “the use of non-human animals in research and development projects, especially for purposes of determining the safety of substances such as foods or drugs” (Dictionary.com). This experimentation has been practiced since around 500 BCE, and has allowed the human race to discover many things that otherwise would have not been discovered (ProCon). The use of animal testing has increased, due to its many necessary benefits, such as: helping form vaccinations and uncovering new diseases in the specific species being tested on (AALAS). However, many animal activist groups such as, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), have spoken out against the issue. These groups claim animal testing to be “inhumane”

Many debilitating diseases and conditions have been cured and prevented using vaccinations that were tested on animals. For example, Emil von Behring performed an experiment on guinea pigs that helped form the vaccine for diphtheria (Soft Schools). The significance of this experiment helped von Behring earn a Nobel Prize in Physiology (Soft Schools). Following von Behring’s findings, Edgar Adrian used frogs to confirm the specific way that the brain sends signals to different parts of the body (Soft Schools). Advancements in the understanding of diabetes, tuberculosis, and polio, along with the formation of anesthetics all were successful with the help of animal testing (Soft Schools). Even though many life threatening diseases were being cured and the field of medicine was quickly expanding, society continued to debate the issue of animal testing.

It is presumed that society does not fully understand how many human lives have been augmented by the use of animal testing. In 1968 Alain Carpentier, a French cardiologist, experimented on the hearts of pigs (Pro Con). His experimentation led him to pioneer a way of not only repairing faulty hearts, but he also mastered the art of replacing those that are not in good enough shape to simply repair (EPO). Considering nearly five thousand heart transplants are performed every year, it is feasible that none of those five thousand

Artificial tissues such as skin are formed using stem cells in the laboratory. As a case in point, in 1990, Gary Stakemiller, an electrician in Orlando received a skin transplant made of skin that was grown in a laboratory (Ricks). Stakemiller needed this graft because over a month earlier, he received burns on seventy five percent of his body (Ricks). The new skin was produced by using a “starter” medium which grows in a laboratory from cells into usable skin (Ricks). It takes about three weeks to grow each sheet of skin from cells, proteins, and nutrients (Ricks). Since this skin can be grown in laboratories that can function as skin on a human, it could also be used to test products such as