Animals have been used for testing and developing new ways for disease treatments. Without animal experiments, diseases like heart bypass surgery, organ transplants, cervical cancer, and vaccines for polio would not have been developed. Using animals as experiments helps develop different treatments and also helps find safer ways for treatments. Animal testing is the only accurate way of learning the human body without harming the human. Although many might argue that scientists are putting the lives of animals at risk by testing on them, but is animal life valued more than the human life? Thinking emotionally, there might be some guilt for harming the lives of animals, but thinking about how many human lives have been saved from animal testing makes all animal testing worth it.
Additionally, animals may not have the exact same psychology as humans, but animal testing is accurate enough to test whether a substance is safe enough for human trials (Gerty). Looking upon the fact that animal testing has developed treatments for bacterial infections, which are a major cause of death, has saved millions of lives. A treatment for bacterial infections is penicillin, which was used on mice to check if it would harm the human body. The mice were first injected with the deadly does of bacteria and then some were injected with penicillin and some were not. The result basically stated that penicillin could be used as a treatment for penicillin when the mice dosed with penicillin survived. Without this experiment the treatment for bacteria would have never been developed further. This experiment has saved millions of lives of not only humans but also animals.
Furthermore, many might believe animal testing only helps humans, but what many people do not know is that animal testing also helps animals in many ways. Animals share the same disease as humans, like cancer, high blood pressure, epilepsy, asthma and many other common diseases. Animals need the same medications as humans for treatment and these treatments come from animal testing. Dr. Ruthanne Chun, a veteran says that cancer is not uncommon in animals and to treat cancer in animals doctors have to use the same medicine as used in humans to treat cancer. But to treat animals, veterans use fewer doses at less frequent intervals. Cancer is one of the treatments that have been developed by animal testing. Not only cancer but also blood transfusion, arthritis in dogs, and bone cancer requires the same treatment for animals as it would for humans.
Additionally, within the American animal rights movement is a vocal anti-research element that dismisses the importance of animal studies, claiming that the results of animal research cannot be applied to human health (Trull). On the other hand, animals are treated with concern, in words of Dr. Michael DeBakey, “scientists, surgeons, veterans and other physicians all respect the dignity of the life of animals and animals are well treated under treatment” (pg.101). Approximately, 95 percent of the lab animals are specialty bred mice and rats. The rest are pigs, sheep, leaches, fruit flies, rabbits, squid, zebra fish, armadillos, and woodchucks combined. Scientist chose these animals because they have a short life span, about 2-3 years. Is it reasonable to say that animals that do not live long are worth a human’s life? Humans can live up to 100 years and if an animal that lives up to 2-3 years can help save a human’s life, than it is better to test on animals. Testing on these animals has saved many human lives and if animal testing did not exit, it would be hard to save human and animal lives.
There are many people against animal testing. Yes, animal testing can be upsetting because many animals are used for experiments, but when thinking of the fact that animal testing helps develop treatments and save millions of people, animal testing does not sound that bad. These experiments have saved millions of lives of animals and not only human beings. An Animal who is going to live a short amount of time is not as important as losing a loved one. Animal testing is helping develop treatments for aids and HIV, approximately 28.1 million people die with aids and HIV and 4.3 million are children under 15. Between 800,000 and 900,000 people in US are living with HIV (word press2000). Animal testing is saving millions of lives and going against animal testing will kill millions of people.
Additionally, “Animal Rights” by William Dudley discusses how animal testing is a cruel way to make cures for humans. Based on the fact that millions of people are being treated for disease is not a reason to make animals suffer cruel treatments. William states “It’s past time for American justice to recognize that animals have lives and interests of their own” (William 15). This quote shows that animals have the same rights as humans and they should get the same opportunity as humans to live their lives their own way .During experimentation on animals about 10 billion animals die because of being injected with the wrong dose. As human rights are important, animal rights should be important also. David M Haugen editor of animal experiments entitles that according to the first amendment to the U.S. constitution “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press” (23). Using the first amendment David tries to present animals as humans and finds animals no different than humans. This law should not only apply to humans but it should also have an effect on animals. Are animals not important to humans anymore; in this 21st century animals are kept like family and to save one family member is it okay to kill the other one?
If animal testing did not exist much of the work developed today by scientists would have not exist. Dr. Micheal E. Debakey said that “not only one advancement in the care of patients, but advancements you use every day are developed by animal testing” (pg. 98). Advancements like antibiotics and blood pressure play a critical role in animal testing. By animal testing scientist and doctors can understand the growth of species and figure out possible effects that can rise in the future. The U.S. foundation of biomedical research says animal research has played a vital role in virtually every major medical advance of last century for both animals and humans. Animal testing has developed treatments like cancer, polio and organ transplants.
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