Persuasive Essay On Animal Testing

Within the past several decades, as medical and scientific research have progressively advanced throughout the world, the global market has expanded to encompass a wide range of medications, chemicals, cosmetics, and other commercial products. In an endeavor to account for the constantly increasing demand for these products, numerous research facilities and laboratories have arisen across the United States. However, although a number of these medications and cosmetics have proven an asset to society, these products are created at the expense of the lives of millions of innocent creatures. Before becoming available for consumption on the market, the effectiveness of these products is verified through a series of unfathomably cruel animal trials

Therefore, due to the ineffably brutal treatment of test subjects and the potentially lethal ramifications on humankind, the United States government should impose a ban on the use of animals in scientific and commercial laboratory testing. To begin with, animal experimentation subjects innocent creatures to immense physical and psychological agony through the employment of abusive, inhumane procedures. Currently, an approximate 26 million animals in the United States alone undergo trials and experiments devised to ascertain the efficiency and overall safety of products developed for human use (“animal-testing”). In a futile attempt to prevent the immoral treatment of animals in scientific laboratories, the government enacted the Animal Welfare Act several years previously, granting marginal protection to a handful of sentient species. However, the Animal Welfare Act excludes nearly 99 percent of animal species commonly used in scientific studies, thereby enabling scientists to experiment on creatures such as birds, mice, fish, and other cold-blooded species without interference from the law (“Animal Testing 101”). Consequently, in order to test commercial products, scientists are permitted

Although a number of mammalian species boast genetic structures relatively similar to humans, minor differences in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) create major biological rifts between humans and animals (“animal-testing”). Though seemingly inconsequential, these minor variations in DNA and genetic code lead to vast structural, anatomical, and cellular differences, rendering animal tests both inconclusive and unreliable (“Should animals be used in research?”). In simpler terms, as expressed by Professor Thomas Hartung of John Hopkin’s University, humans are “not 70 kg rats" (“animal-testing”). Due to these discrepancies, 94 percent of chemicals and other products that have yielded successful results in animal trials have proven ineffective on humans. In some cases, the erroneous, unreliable results from animal experimentation have led to lethal repercussions in humankind. For instance, in 1999, after conducting a multitude of trials on mice, scientists concluded that the arthritis drug Vioxx provided effective relief from arthritis while soothing the heart muscle. However, when Vioxx was eventually released on the market, the arthritis medication triggered over 27,000 fatal heart attacks in humans before being removed from the shelves. Undoubtedly, biological differences between humans and animals place