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Animal Research - Is It Right to Use Animals to Test Medicines?

Essay Animal Research - Is It Right to Use Animals to Test Medicines? and over other 27,000+ free term papers, essays and research papers examples are available on the website!

Autor:   •  April 5, 2011  •  Essay  •  766 Words (4 Pages)  •  614 Views

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There has been a long debate on if it is right to use animals to test medicines, or inject them with diseases to see if a cure can be found. To see a human suffering from a disease it makes you feel sorry for them and only wish that the person were well, is the same thought for an animal when it has an illness or is it just over looked because they are not as equal to us? The use of animals in research is debated on if it is right or wrong, but does have its positive effects on human life.

The use of animals in research has given humans a great advantage with health and wellness. Many things are tested on animals to make sure they are safe for human to use. Shampoo that you use in your hair, Chap Stick you put on your lips and soap you wash your body with are all things that could be tested on an animal to ensure they are safe for use. Many medicines are tested on animals to see if they work or cause harm to humans. Using animals in research has been debated on for centuries some people say that it is bad and that it should not be done; while others are for the use because it is beneficial to human. Animal activists believe that animals, like humans, have thought process.

There are alternatives to the use of animals but many scientists are reluctant to accept them as a concept. Rather than replacement these are seen as an addition to animal research. The use of smaller brained animals is more supported by people examples of these animals are mice and rats. People are less supportive of using cats and dogs. Animal activists believe that animals should have equal rights as a human and should not be used for research for our benefit. Some also believe that animals have mental experiences and abilities such as the ability to solve problems and make decisions. Knight 464-467.

The positive side of animal research is in need of reaching the headlines more than the negative that is known. Proof of the use of the animals is positive for the research has to be justified scientifically before the research can be preformed. New or hard to treat disease would have no new medicines without animal testing. "The use of animals in medical research and safety testing is a vital part of the quest to improve human health"(The Lancet p 815) Scientist would not just perform test on an animal for the fun of it there has to be a reason that the research is being done. There is always a question they are seeing an answer for such as will this hurt a person or will this medicine help this person with this type of illness.

"Obviously, there are species differences between animal and human beings. But animal work is just one part of the totality of evidence gathering, and use of one rodent and one non-rodent species will predict seven of ten toxic reactions in human beings. About 350 human diseases have an animal counterpart. For each drug tried in human about 350 animals will have been tested. Human trials need 3000-4000


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