Is Animal Testing Necessary?
Many people use a lot of products in daily life. For example, you use some cosmetics for your dating. And If you catch a cold because you stay at home and turn on the air conditioner, you have medicine that the doctor prescribed. Also, you have a meal when you are hungry. Most people use products without a doubt because they believe that products are safe. So, What kind of process do these products go through in order to ensure these products are safe? They are tested through animal testing! Many companies experiment on animals to make safe products. But, use of animal in experiments causes controversy. There are some people who argue that animal testing is most effective and accurate method to develop medicine. On the other hands, there are some people who argue that we should not use animals on experiments because animal testing has cruelty and unreliable method. In such controversy, It seems like facts that we should not experiment on animal.
Animal testing is any experiment using living animals in order to develop for scientific aim such as medicine, food or cosmetics. The various animals - from a protozoan to mammal - are used commonly in animal testing. In 2012, animals that were used for scientific experiment are approximately 500,000,0000 each year in the world. The origin of animal testing trace back to the ancient Greece. Hippocrates(BC460?~BC377?) explained reproduction and heredity through animal dissection. And Aristoteles(BC384~BC322) also developed anatomy and embryology through observing animal. Moreover, Claudios Galenos(129~199) who was a roman physician in a second century is famous because he investigated fact about brain nerves, muscle, bone and heart, dissecting animals like monkey, pigs and goats. Like this, Study of animal dissection was important groundwork in medical areas. Although animal testing has led to advances in medical science, why people raise their voice against animal testing? Recently, animals experimentation video reveals that experimental animals that cannot move at all in plastic machines suffer from drugs tests. Although It is difficult to stop animal testing completely because Animal testing's purpose and form are various as the long history, people argue that animal testing should stop.
First of all, animal testing have cruelty and hurts experimental animals. Some people believe that experimental animals died without pain during testing. But, If we see animal testing process, we cannot say it. The animal testing process shows that seriousness and cruelty of animal experiments. For example, New England Anti-Vivisection Society explain about cruelty of animal testing. It says that animals come in for tests that include everything from doing new drug testing to infecting with diseases, making brain damage, giving brain electric shock, burning skin, giving a toxic substance, blinding, and other agonizing and painful procedures. New England Anti-Vivisection Society stated that Anesthetization, euthanasia and intubation are also the common process that need considerable training and skill. When experiments improperly do, these processes make animal get extreme suffering and discomfort. Like this, Many experimental animals suffer from physical distress during testing. Besides, They suffer from mental anguish. For example, New England Anti-Vivisection Society shows mental pain of experimental animals. A lot of animal testers use restraining devices that keep the animals from moving. Also, animals get extreme stress because of day-to-day lab life. They live their lives in desolate cages that make animals unable to express natural behaviors. Most of them cannot feel fresh air and sunshine but concrete and foul air. They show abnormal behavior because of poor environment. These animal experiments show that laboratory animals don't be respected. The rights of animals, as well as human rights should be respected. So, Most animals should not suffer from not only mental anguish but also physical distress during testing anymore because all of the animals are living things and should be respected.
Next, Animal testing doesn't work. Some people think that animal testing is most accurate and reliable method because animals share many genes with humans. However, animals are not little human. They can be a human and human also can be an animal. So, they cannot get human diseases. We can know the fact that animals cannot get human diseases through Animal Aid that is a British animal rights organization. Chimpanzees share more than 98% of human DNA. But, they don’t be troubled with deadly forms of AIDS, hepatitis B or malaria that kills millions of humans every year. So, They can make poor data because animal experimenting cannot reflect a human condition perfectly. For example, The National Anti-Vivisection Society explain about Thalidomide. Thalidomide is used in the 1950s as a sedative. It is a medicine which give pregnant women in order to cure morning sickness. Thalidomide was safe when it was tested in animals, but If she takes thalidomide when woman was pregnant, It causes birth defects in over 10,000 children. Moreover, The National Anti-Vivisection Society describe a penicillin. It was not appropriate for curing infected rabbits and was poisonous to guinea pigs. However, It is effective and appropriate for curing bacterial infections in most humans. The animal experiments often show unreliable and inaccurate results. If the use of animals on experiment continues, It can be a disaster to human because unreliable and inaccurate data can hurt a lot of people. So If the real purpose of experiments is finding treatment for many diseases and curing the human, we should not test on animals because animal experiment doesn't work.
Finally, There are various alternatives to animal testing. The alternatives that experts find are more effective and accurate method rather than animal testing. Also, they have a lot of good points. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals explain alternatives to animal testing that include that Vitro Testing using human tissues and cells, computer-modeling system and research with human volunteers. For example, Harvard’s Wyss Institute has developed “organs-on-chips” which contain human cells that grow in a state-of-the-art system in order to imitate the structure and function of internal organ of a human body. The chips can be used instead of animals testing that makes animals painful and It has been shown to copy human physiology, illness, and predict drug responses more reliably than rough animal testers do. These alternatives make results that are relevant to human bodies. Also, non-animal testing has a lot of benefits. National Anti-Vivisection Society say that Non-animal tests are more cost-effective and pragmatic. The traditional animal testing can take five years per and require millions of dollars while non-animal testing can experiment hundreds of chemicals in a week with a slight cost. In sum, non-animal testing is more cost-effective and reliable while, animal experiments are unreliable and cruel. If we have more effective method, we don't have to experiment on animals.
Some people can argue that animal testing is most accurate method because humans share most genes with mammals. However, opponent's opinion is overlooking that animal testing cannot help people find human diseases because animals never reflect human bodies perfectly. So, medicine that is effective in animals may be ineffective in human bodies. Even, animal experiments lead to a serious problem to human health. National Anti-Vivisection Society says that monkeys are cured with a therapeutic antibody (anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody TGN1412) but, they didn’t anticipate the latent fatal immune response that was caused in humans. Also, according to Animal Aid It’s common that the rate of success for predicting harmful adverse effect from animal testing is 5-25%. So, animal testing is not accurate and reliable method because although they share a lot of genes with humans, animals testing can make poor data that have a bad effect on human beings.
Also, someone can say that It is very dangerous for humans to give a medicine that are not tested on animals directly. But It is not important because there are various alternative to animal testing. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals explain advanced computer Modeling. It shows that these models can accurately predict drug response of human organs and replace using animals in new drug testing and toxicity experiment. We don't argue that we should give medicine to human without any testing such as animal testing. We can ensure that these products are safe through various alternatives that are more effective rather than animal testing.
A responsible society should not allow experimenters to test using animals. First, animal testing is cruel and makes experimental animals suffer from severe pain. Next, animal testing doesn't work because animals never can reflect human bodies perfectly. Finally, There are various alternatives that are more reliable and effective rather than animal testing.
A controversy about animal testing occurs when the animal experiment video show that many animals suffer from this testing. It is important for not only human beings but also animals to stop the animal testing because animals are living things and should be respected. So, Stopping animal testing is best solution because animal testing can not only hurt experimental animals but also make poor data that hurt people. The Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, recognized that “using animal in laboratory for medical advance and target validation is taking a huge amount of time, costly and may not accurately predict the efficacy of a drug.” If we don't stop the animal testing that cause a serious problem to human health because people believe that the animal experiment is effective way, we someday suffer from the consequence of animal testing. Who will prevent this situation? It will be you and me. So, In order to prevent this situation, It is necessary to stop animal testing.
References
1. New England Anti-Vivisection Society. (n.d.). Harm and Suffering. Retrieved from http://www.neavs.org/research/harm-suffering
2. Animal Aid. (n.d.). Do animal experiments work?. Retrieved from http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/YOUTH/experiments//1873//
3. The National Anti-Vivisection Society. (n.d.) The Failure of the Animal Model. Retrieved from http://www.navs.org/science/failure-of-the-animal-model
4. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. (n.d.) Alternatives to Animal Testing. Retrieved from http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-animal-testing/
5. Harvard’s Wyss Institute. (Nov 7, 2012). Wyss Institute Models a Human Disease in an Organ-on-a-Chip. Retrieved from http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/99
6. National Anti-Vivisection Society. (n.d.) Alternatives In Testing. Retrieved from http://www.neavs.org/alternatives/in-testing
7. Francis S. Collins. (n.d.). Reengineering Translational Science: The Time Is Right. Retrived from http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/90/90cm17.full
