Topics: Should animals be used for research?
In recent years, human beings have seen a wide range of technological advances and breakthroughs. As one of the typical example, animals have been used as tools to test newly researched products. However, animal testing still remains a controversial point. Some people believe that animal testing needs to be fostered for research, especially in the medical fields, to improve human health. Whereas, others think that it is a serious issue because using animals for research is inhumane and wasteful. From our point view, the latter opinion is more preferable for several reasons.
First of all, nowadays, animals are being abused by humans in the name of testing and research. Though animals contribute their life for human and nature, for example, biodiversity, agricultural development, entertainment, humans do not eliminatethem. The types of animals sacrificed each year for research are not only small species but also a variety of valuable animals such as: rabbits, goats, primates.
Each year more than 20 million animals are used in biomedical research projects, with more than 90 percent of them being mice, rats, and other rodents. Of the other animal species, about 65,000 dogs, 23,000 cats, and 55,000 primates were used for research purposes in the United States between October 1, 2003 and September 30, 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
After being used in experiment, most animals die and the rest become useless or wait for the death. Therefore, it will be appropriate if scientists use a small number of animals. On the contrary, they use a huge number of kinds of different animals, which can create the mass death accompanied by terrible effects on both habitats on Earth and human beings.
Secondly, animals deserve to have the same rights as human beings who are actually a highly developed form of animals. It is proved that “Animals have a right to be free from experimentation, imprisonment, and killing” (Doris Lin, 2010).The practical reason why using animals for research is that the set of organs and body system between animals and humans are similar in some cases. The same organs including heart, lungs, liver and so on are the most fundamental parts of the living creature’s body. In addition, although animals do not have abilities as humans such as communicating, driving cars, writing books; they still have the brain and the capability of thinking. Thus, animals can clearly feel the pain and other emotions like fear and stress. They would suffer appalling injuries both physiologically and psychologically. As a result, animals should be respected and protected.
Another reason is that there are some regrettable consequences in animals testing because of the incompatible genes between human and animals. As mentioned, animals have some parts of body which seem alike to people’s parts; however, there are some structural differences between them in reality. When animals try on new medicine, it might be pretty effective. On the other hand, when applying to people, it does not work well or cause negative sides. C. Ray Greek and Jean Swingle Greek (1998) avowed that “Modern medical advances such as antibiotics and vaccines are not the result of animal experiments”. For instance, when researchers use mice in lungs cancer research, they found no relationship between lungs cancer and smoking. There is no doubt, “Cancer research has an abysmal record of failures when using rats, mice, and other animals”. Moreover, some other animal testing is also invalid. Scientists spent 20 years on finding a cure for AIDS by using baby monkeys which were separated from mothers since they were born. Nevertheless, baby monkey’s immune systems were seriously affected by stress and there are incompatibility of genes between people and monkeys. That is reason why although taking 7 million dollars, that experimentation is still unsuccessful and become ridiculous. In short, using animals for research simply does not make sure the quality of new products and indeed, it is a wasteful method with a number of hidden and unpredictable consequences.
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Some people believe that using animals in research is a reasonable choice to develop new medical discoveries. According to zoology professor, Edmund, he believes that some research work with animals should continue because of the medical and other reasons. Nevertheless, that way is not scientifically proved. Using non-human creatures in research can cause some disadvantages. It not only harms to animals but also puts humans in danger. Meanwhile, medicine or products for Humans which were experienced on animals might hazard humans’ health. Moreover, experiment with animals is time-consuming, high-cost and immoral. In contrast, there are more and more breakthroughs in field of science and technique with the high degree of accuracy. They represent developed steps of human beings, their contributions for the Earth and the respects to The Mother Nature.
Animals is not the unique element which decides human beings’ medical development, we can rely on ourselves. We have been creating alternatives including test tubes in labs, computer programs, and “cell cultures”. For example, the effective instead method is using an “Electric cell-substrate Impedance Sensing (ECIS) device. Two researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed this device which uses electricity to study the activity of complex cells over time. Besides, it is connected via software to a computer so analyses and data acquisition about cell’s response can be automatically transmitted every quarter second. “These replacements could markedly reduce or even eliminate the need to use living animals to test and measure the toxicity levels of chemicals”.