Animal Testing History

Animal testing has historical roots dating back to 384 BC as Greek physician-scientists used animals to make further advancements in the medical fields. During this time, techniques for “vivisections” were performed in which live animals were surgically dissected for intellectual benefits (Franco). Well-respected individuals like Aristotle, Erasistratus, and Galen conducted experiments on animals to better understand the “anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology” of humans (Hajar). Such experiments benefited the scientific community and allowed scientific researchers to apply their knowledge to human patients (Hajar). Periods like the Renaissance and the 17th century were marked with an abundance of animal testing and experimentation

Descartes in the 16th century claimed that animals were similar to “automated machines” and were to be manipulated by humans (Horner). Many scientific researchers used Descartes description of animals as a way to defend the cruel experiments that they were conducted on animals (Franco). Although some physiologists questioned the morality behind techniques like vivisections, they quickly disregarded the cruelness and deemed these practices necessary for biomedical

By the nineteenth century, animal experimentation was more commonly used to receive a better understanding of the “pathology…,disease, progression, …diagnosis and prognosis” (Franco). Millions of lives were saved due to discoveries of “vitamins, hormones, antibiotics, safe blood transfusion, vaccines, insulin, hemodialysis, chemo and radiotherapy for cancer, the eradication of smallpox,… advanced means of diagnostic and new surgical techniques” all of which were all possible because of animal experimentation (Franco). In 1912, an article titled, “Solving Medical Mysteries by Help of Animals” was published in the New York Times (Metz). The author, Metz, was a businessman and politician from New York who used this article to publicly inform society that testing on small animals in research could benefit society in extensive ways. This article described a scene in which animals were segregated into rooms and used as experimental subjects to discover how to stop the spread of epidemics and diseases that were occurring within society (Metz). These experiments could assist in discoveries for cures of malaria, tetanus, and diphtheria that were killing large populations. American scientists argued that these experiments were necessary and would largely contribute to the survival of veterans while in combat. The discoveries made on rodents and other small animals allotted