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Ethics of animal testing for and against
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Over 61,000 dogs suffer in U.S laboratories every year. More than 21,000 cats are forced to endure painful experiments in U.S laboratories anually. Animals have been used repeatedly for scientific research throughout history. However, not all animal studies have been successful when humans were involved. Animal testing torments many innocent creatures for unreliable and costly research that is not necessary.
South Korea’s National Health and Welfare committee has just recently created a bill that will ban the uses of cosmetics and its ingredients, but it only works against areas that have an alternative to their cause (Miles). This is a great example of how laws that are supposed to fight animal testing just allow advocates of it to evade the laws’ restrictions. Further on the topic, in the nineteenth-century more companies led to the increased use of animals in testing, and subsequently, groups that set out to oppose the use of animals in scientific experiments (Murnaghan). That battle between those advocates and enemies of animal testing is still present and very alive today. Animal testing causes animals to suffer and does not benefit humans,
Animal Testing: Bloody Secret behind beauty It is true that cosmetics are routinely tested on animals before they are cleared for human use. Most of people don’t know the reality of animal testing, they just want to know the effectiveness of the products. Animal testing in cosmetics and other products affects our society, we must understand and try to solve this problem. Animal testing is widely used to develop new cosmetics and test the safety of the products. However, these tests or experiments can cause animals pain and suffering.
Animal tests produce results which are not applicable to humans. Important cellular, genetic and structural differences between humans and other type of animals have prevented animal models from serving as effective models in order to find a treatment. Animals are not little human. Although humans share most of their genes with other mammals, there are still differences in how human’s body function. Small differences in an individual’s biochemistry can account for the drastic variation in reactions among members of the same species and between members of different species.
Furthermore, some major ethical issues with animal testing is that animals are often forced to suffer diseases, injuries, and live in isolated cages awaiting death by the end of the study; but, even though researchers try to reduce the pain, “they aren’t able to completely prevent any pain from occurring” since animals are living beings. Animals experience a considerable amount of pain and are subjected to all kinds of suffering including testing as awful as forced diseases, injuries, and enduring a life of isolated captivity. However, when the scientist no longer needs the animal, the animal is put to sleep without any thought about the animal’s life or purpose; so, this poor treatment of animals is morally wrong because animals live and breathe just as humans do and should be treated with more respect. Because much of medical research has nothing to do with animal testing, there seems no reason to continue this kind of animal abuse for animal testing is obviously not the core of medical progressions. Also, alternatives in the medical field are being made to replace animal testing, so animals no longer have to deal with the torture they have been subjected to, and these alternatives will most likely advance the medical field more than animal testing has advanced the medical field.
According to Biology online, Animal testing is defined as using animals in experiments and development projects usually to determine toxicity, dosing and efficacy of take a look at capsules before proceeding to human scientific trials. Animal experimentation has been functioning since ancient Greece when Aristotle and Hippocrates first made their model of the human body based on what they had observed via animal dissection. Similarly, Romans used animals to do greater medical assessments on animals like pigs, monkeys and dogs. After that, the age of the Renaissance continued medical research. “As such, the 20th century had a large boom in animal experimentation until 1980 when activists commenced standing up against the labs (Branson)”.
Moreover, testing for cosmetics is obviously evil to animals. The fact that people take small helpless animals to torture them, so human could feel better. In the article “Animal Testing-A Necessary Evil?” Paterson reports that “Animals are also not just exposed to short periods of physical restraint but also prolonged periods. They can be deprived of food and water and wounds are inflicted, along with burns and other injuries in order to study healing.
I believe the testing of animals for beauty products is not ethical and should stop. The debate of testing on animals has been going on for a long time. Aristotle debated this by saying that we as humans were at the top of the pyramid because we have the sense of reasoning and rational souls. In the scenario we face is that the rabbits are given injections in the eyes and this is very painful for them.
Since 2000, around 16 million in government funds have gone to Wayne State University, or WSU, for animal research, specifically for experiments that use dogs to attempt to simulate or replicate cardiovascular conditions in humans. However, Wayne State’s methods of research have concerned Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, who aims to file a lawsuit against WSU. These dogs are used to simulate cardiovascular conditions. For example, “The dogs have the blood flow to their kidneys obstructed to create hypertension.”
The study took a look at publicly paid for animal tests in the United States and the United Kingdom. The scientists used monkeys and rodents as their primary test subjects. Nearly 300 reports were collected from leading biomedical research publishers. Out of all of the acquired publications, only 59% of them proclaimed their study’s goal, the amount of animals that they used, and important traits of their test subjects. All of these factors are expected to be made public in order to display a credible and successful scientific experiment (Kilkenny et al. 3).
Animal testing goes as far back to greek philosophers such as Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) and Erasistratus (304 – 258 BC). Whom once performed testing on animals to advance behavior of something or who aspired to alter brain activity. However there was scientists such as Galen (129 – 199 / 217 AD), who used animals in order to attempt to improve various human activity within the body. Specifically focusing on cures and treatment for those who don't have them. Later, Ibn Zuhr began to use animal testing to benefit humans in which he would perform surgeries on them to ensure that the procedures would not harm humans.
As an animal owner myself, testing on animals has always been a topic on my mind but I did not know much about it other then the fact that it hurt animals most of the time. At first I was against animal testing but after research my position has changed. Animal testing began in about 500 B.C. and has continued to this day but has increased and advanced more then ever before. New vaccines and cures for diseases have been created and have save many lives.
Considering Alternative Methods: If you’re still in the camp ‘principally against anything anthropocentric’, then that’s fine. It also means you’re going to consider any animal testing outright wrong, if it’s purpose is to make discoveries for humans. That’s why alternative methods are so important, because they allow us to avoid human extinction – which would cause the extinction of all other animals – without committing the sins of humanity that Maheny talks about. If you’re pro-anthropocentric, but also get pleasure in needlessly slaughtering animals, then allow me to elaborate on just how ‘needless’ this slaughtering really is.
New studies are being published on the ethical failings of researchers to adequately represent data in a variety of contexts. This could have serious implications for the veracity of certain information germane to deliberations on whether or not studies should progress to the next stage, among other things. One new American study, for example, has found that placebo groups are used often in clinical trials despite a lack of appropriate guidelines for how they can be used, and the study shows how problematic that is. Meanwhile, a German and Canadian study is showing what is perhaps an even bigger deal, which is that inadequacies in the designs of animal studies as well as insufficient reporting of said studies are proving to be a circumvention
Leaping Toward a Cruelty-Free World Worldwide, cosmetic animal testing is still implemented. Although some parts of the world have banned testing chemicals on animals such as the European Union and New Zealand, countries such as the United States and Canada continue to consent. “The beauty industry makes people look and feel beautiful but is horrifically ugly when it comes to the treatment of animals in laboratories.” (Cole 2). Knowing the alternatives, organizations, and cruelty-free products ultimately improves the knowledge about animal testing.