Using Animals in Research:pros and Cons
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Using Animals in Research :
Pros and Cons
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Using Animals in Research:
A Review of Necessity
Over the last century, little has changed in the debate of using animals for research
purposes.Some people believe that it is a cruel and inhumane practice. While others
believe animal research is needed to advance, especially in the medical field. There is
also a grey area of which most people, including researchers belong. The people in
this grey area usually have contradictory ideas regarding animals in research. In helping
to form our own opinion, we should address the following questions:
1. Is animal research necessary?
2. Are tests done on animals, such as drug interactions, proved to have the same
effects on humans?
3. Are there any alternatives to using animals in research?
In the past, animal research has played a major role in the advancement of medical
treatment. The French chemist Louis Pastiur studied infectious diseases in animals and
found that these diseases derived from external microorganisms. Pastiur proved through
these experiments that a vaccine to prevent these diseases could be produced. Its
breakthroughs like this that have people believing that animal research is necessary. I
believe that this is not the case.
Despite years of animal research, diseases such as cancer has provided no cure.Many of our medical discoveries such ad antibiotics, CAT scans, aspirin, and anesthetics have
been developed from nonanimal experiments. Nonanimal experiments include automated devices, computers, test tube cultures of cell and tissue cultures, physio-chemical studies,
behavioral studies and postmortem studies on humans. Use of these types of experiments
have proved beneficial not only to humans but also to animals. For example the limes test, a test to see if a substance is carcinogenic, uses a micro-organism culture. This test takes just a few days compared to years on animals, saving many research