Testing Drugs On Animals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Testing Drugs On Animals - Essay Example The American Medical Association has stated that it believes that research involving animals is essential to maintaining and improving the health of human beings. They point out that all advances in medical science in the 20th century, from antibiotics to organ transplants, has been achieved either directly or indirectly through the use of animals in laboratory experiments. Arguments for animal experimentation may question the morality, necessity, and validity of these studies. The moral issue on animal experimentations concerns the need to protect human life and to improve the quality of life. The gains in human health and well being outweigh the cost in animal suffering which nonetheless should be kept to a minimum, in this viewpoint. It would be immoral to conduct such tests on humans, and so animals serve as our stand-ins for many kinds of testing and research. Those who support animal testing may care deeply about animals but don't place them on an equal status with humans. Research on animals may be deemed necessary for a variety of reasons: to develop vaccines and treatments and cures for diseases, to ensure that new products are safe to use. Such as making sure that they won't blind us, burn our skin, or even kill us and to help students, especially prospective doctors, veterinarians, and so on, learn their way around a body. Animals do make good research subjects for many purposes and research on them can tell us a great deal about ourselves. Animals are, in many ways, biologically similar to humans and are susceptible to many of the same health problems. Some species may serve as particularly good models for certain aspects of human health or physiology. Much of what we know about the immune system, for example, has come from studies with mice, and much of what we know about the cardiovascular system has come from studies with dogs. Many heart surgery techniques, such as coronary bypass surgery, artificial heart valve insertion, and pacemaker implants, were studied first in dogs before being used in people. (Jean Swingle Greek, DVM and C. Ray Greek, MD) Animals may make even better research subjects than humans in some regards. Furthermore, scientists can control certain aspects of an animal's environment, diet, temperature, lighting, and so on, more easily than would be possible with people. Supporters of the use of animals in research argue that alternative methods can't fully replace the use of animals, and may never do so. Neither cells grown outside a body nor computer programs can predict the complex interactions that occur in an entire living system. Countless medical treatments, techniques, and technologies have come about, at least in part, through animal experimentation. The development of immunization against such diseases as polio, diphtheria, mumps, measles, rubella, pertussis, and hepatitis all involved research on animals, as did the discovery of insulin and the study of diabetes. Animal research also has played a part in the development of organ transplantation, hip replacement, chemotherapy, cardiac pacemakers, coro nary bypass surgery, ongoing efforts to understand and treat AIDS and Alzheimer's disease, and more. Arguments against animal testing may also question the morality, the necessity, or the validity of these studies. That is, whether we have the right to perform such