This is a short essay about using animals for medical research. It is deliberately written in a straightforward, simplified style and is for students. Visitors are free to use it as they wish under a creative commons license.
Animal testing is controversial. It divides the opinions of people. In North America about 60% of people are for it while in the United Kingdom about 40% believe it is acceptable.
Using animals for medical research is widespread. There are an estimated 100 million experiments worldwide annually. In the UK, nearly all experiments are done on mice, rats, fish and birds. However, cats, dogs and rabbits are often used. Some people trade in unwanted pets for use at laboratories.
The reason for animal testing is dubious but the fact that animal testing happens a lot tells us that it is generally accepted by people despite opposition by a large minority.
The reason why it is accepted is because people believe they are superior to animals and therefore animals should serve people. The animal cannot claim or demand rights. It is in the power of people to grant rights to animals and at present, in the interests of human health, people desire to limit the rights of animals. Obviously animals do not consent to being used for medical research.
Using animals for medical research has resulted in many advances in human medicine and treatments because animal anatomy is very similar to ours. Although recently it was found that research using mice may be unreliable.
Testing on animals has given people longer lives and helped in creating treatments for asthma (inhalers) and diabetes. These are just two examples of many.
However, asthma inhalers treat the symptoms of the illness while a greater focus should be on the underlying causes of asthma. Diabetes is on the increase. Perhaps the focus should be on changing human lifestyles to reduce diabetes rather than treating it which may encourage unhealthy lifestyles.
Medical advances are not automatically good for us because they can divert us from focusing on how to make the planet more healthy and to live more healthily. If there was a complete cure for lung cancer do you think people would stop smoking?
Also, are we living too long? Hospitals are full of very old, sick people who are kept alive through medicines and treatments created from animal testing. For example, research on mice has improved cancer survival rates.
However, are we able to afford to keep people alive longer and what about the quality of life? It is strange that people kept alive beyond a natural death are then often, quietly put to death by an overdose of morphine given by a nurse who knows exactly how much morphine is needed to kill a patient. This is accepted by everyone. We keep people alive and then kill them. What are we doing?
But let’s remind ourselves that medical research is a business. The driving force of animal testing laboratories is financial profit. Is this a good reason for using animals in medical research? Medical research is not automatically a good thing. It needs to be used carefully. Also we are told that a lot of animal research could be done just as well without animals and that sometimes animal reactions to new treatments does not reflect how a human would react.
However, in favour of animal testing is the fact that, for example, hip replacement techniques have been improved using animal research. Animal testing does improve the lives of people.
People who are for using animals in medical research say that the benefits to people are so great it doesn’t make sense to stop it. There are numerous examples of the benefits to humankind. It is better than an animal suffers in testing than us through illness. Also, many veterinary medical advances are based on animal testing. They also say that it is carefully regulated and suffering is kept to an absolute minimum. People against it say that isn’t enough and from time to time whistleblowers reveal unethical behavior at animal testing laboratories. Scientists are not automatically ethical people.
People who are against it also say we have no right to use and abuse animals for our benefit because we are not superior to animals and in any case we are human-animals.
As stated this is a divisive and controversial subject. At present more people accept animal testing than reject it which is why it exists but is this state of affairs another example of human self-interest exploiting the planet for short term gain?
Why dont they test on people already struggling with the illness. Or on Low Lifes.
That is the way I think too. If we want to improve our health we should test on ourselves.
I’m just sick to death of Animals being Tested on. How much longer does it need to continue. By Low Life’s I mean People that have caused serious Harm to animals. Why should a Kitten Or Puppy have to pay for treatment for someone else.
Will not go here. Could blow away a week banging out views on animal experimentation. The garden needs work.
As for ‘cancer research’ -‘A cure for cancer will be the worst misfortune to befall the human race.’ [Elizabeth Kubler Ross]
Sylvia, I’d love you to expand on that cancer quote.
I so loved that woman, Sylvia.
Had the pleasure of hearing her speak in 1971.
Please elaborate on your above quote. I don’t think I ever read or heard that.
“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Good points which indicate it all pretty much a waste of money. But in the meantime lots of people get big salaries and that’s all that matters to them. The people who shower them with money need to get their heads screwed back on.
Hi Michael. That’s what I believe.
Ruth. That’s pretty scary but not surprising. People and animals don’t seem matter to them, until it’s the turn of those jokers to get cancer. It’s the same with heart disease. None of the dietary advice or medications helps much and can actually cause more harm. The advice to reduce cholesterol levels to prevent heart disease is complete hogwash because it obviously doesn’t help in the last bit. it’s like advising the managers of an oil refinery that has a lot of oil fires that the remedy is to cut the quantity of oil in the tanks by 3/4 when the real cause is faulty electrical wiring or faulty construction.
I’ve just been reading today that older people are being denied medication for certain illnesses as it’s too expensive. So if by some miracle Cancer Research UK DID find a cure, but we know they never will whilst torturing animals, it would only be for the rich who could afford to pay for it.
Yes, the NHS is finally realising that they can’t afford anything and everything. There is a limit and at some time nature has to take its course. The drug companies who animal test create drugs and treatments that the taxpayer can’t afford. This is another reason why animal testing is hard to justify.
An example of how research on animals is like all other big business…..all about money
Cancer Research don’t want to find the cure for cancer. It would end their mega-business. The money would be better spent on changing people’s lifestyles to prevent cancer.
Yes, all big business.
I believe that many cures for many maladies should have been found long ago.
But, researchers, doctor, and pharmaceutical companies don’t want that.
It is like the big petrochemical companies such as Shell and BP buying up companies making highly efficient engines and motor cars and then shutting the business down to keep up demand for gas (petrol).
Despite the generral acceptance in the scientific community that animal testing is useful for proving the safety of new medicines, There are examples of that method failing. It even fails when testing a veterinary medicine on animals. For example the antibiotics Baytril and Convenia have proved deadly to animals. The danger of these 2 medications surfaced very quickly after their introduction which indicates their testing was just a joke.
The testing of Aspirin and Paracetamol on animals would only produce sick or dead animals. Personally I feel testing on animals is nothing more that observing the legal requirements for acceptance and the actual results may differ from those stated in order to gain acceptance. That would explain why dangerous medicines get into general use.
I guess you mean that the testing on animals is done to simply tick the regulatory boxes and get the product on the market.