Animal Testing Should Be Used In Scientific Experiments

The controversial topic that I chose to do my research paper on is whether or not animal testing should be used in scientific experiments. This topic is important because 26 million animals are used annually in the U.S alone. I chose this topic because of the strong views of both sides and how well backed up they are. This is a major discussion that has been going on for years with no apparent resolution in sight. There are two sides to using animal testing, which are that using animals has helped us in experiments, making us able to test on living subjects without using human volunteers, and that animal testing is abusive, cruel and unnecessary because of the other resources we could use, being that animals are different from humans. Animal testing has been practiced around the 17th century at least and has been used for the majority of scientific testing around the globe. The oldest known experiment with animal testing was with William Harvey 's experiment by demonstrating blood circulation on multiple animal types. Animal testing continued to spread throughout Europe in the 19th century where anesthetics were developed which made the use of animals in testing possible. In 1876, the Cruelty to Animals Act passed. This set limits on animal

Chimpanzees are one of the most commonly used animals in the lab for mainly one reason, that the share 99% of the DNA that humans have. Mice, another very common animal in testing, share 98% of the same DNA we have. Animal testing only works if the animal we are testing on is similar to humans. If the subject the scientist is experimenting on is not similar to humans, the experiment will not be conclusive if it will work on a human subject. The animals tested have the same seat of organs we have with nearly the same functioning bloodstream and nervous system. Also animals are susceptible to the same illnesses that we