Ethical Issues With Animal Testing

Concerning the issue of animal testing and whether it is acceptable to subject animals to experimentation for medical research, I am in favor of scientists to continuing to perform medical research on animals because of the progress it has aided society. The research contributes to many cures, medicinal treatments, and it ensures the safety of products for people. Animal research also provides an ethical way of testing versus using human subjects as it provides a sample of a living organism similar such as chimpanzees. The animals are protected from abuse and mistreatment due to regulations and some are bred specifically for research. Researchers agree that having animal subjects are essential to their research as they are able to study a whole

While there may be some ethical arguments to be made about the sanctity of animal lives used in medical research, however, I believe there is a general consensus among people that they would prefer to not have people be used as the primary subjects for research and instead use animals. A worthy defense of banning animal research is the concern of the millions of animals that die and suffer through some gruesome experimentation at the hands of researchers. On the other hand, According to U.S. Statistics (2015) from speakingresearch.com, people ate 1800 pigs or 340 chickens for every research animal that was tested also, for every animal used in research, 14 or more are killed on our roads every year (U.S. Statistics). According Animal Testing by ProCon.org, the website lists that, “People in the United States eat 9 billion chickens and 150 million cattle, pigs and sheep annually, yet we only use around 26 million animals for research, 95% of which are rodents, birds and fish”(sec.13). The rate at which animals are harvested in the U.S. in order to be consumed by the populace is numerous compared to the amounts of animals that die during animal testing. Researchers should try their best in limiting the number of animals they research on while advancing through their

According to The Animal Legal and Historical Center at Michigan State University, “The Animal Welfare Act is a federal statute that directs the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture to "promulgate standards to govern the humane handling, care, treatment, and transportation of animals by dealers, research facilities, and exhibitors”(The Animal Welfare Act). This law was passed in 1966 and its purpose was to make sure that animals were transported, housed and handled with care. Over the years there have been several amendments and similar laws that have included more animals under its protections, including the end of testing on chimpanzees. According to AnimalResearch.Info, many basic cell processes are the same in all animals, and the bodies of animals are like humans in the way that they perform many vital functions such as breathing, digestion, movement, sight, hearing and reproduction (sect. 2). Some animals have such a similar DNA structure to humans that the effects of experimentation may show comparability to people. This provide an exemplary reason as to why animals should be used as the primary subjects for testing and then once