Arguments for Animal Testing

Rooting for Animal Testing

“We all want to be healthy and safe. We want to have the means to prevent or cure the health problems and diseases that currently reduce the quality of life of millions of people… At the same time most of us would prefer animals not to be used to achieve these outcomes” (Monamy cit. in Walsh and Richmond 85). These outcomes are all possible because of the medical research on animals. Animal testing is the use of animals as biological models to test new medical drugs and procedures. This practice has been severely criticized by activists who claim it to be cruel and unethical. Despite these claims, I think animal testing should be continued because it is beneficial for medical progress, it ensures our safety, and it is ethical.

One of the reason why animal testing should continue is that it benefits us in many ways, especially in medical researches. Animal-based researches have contributed and still contribute to scientific progress (the ethics of medical research, bioethics for students). There are already lifesaving medical breakthroughs resulting from animal testing. Thanks to it, multiples vaccines for polio, rabies, tuberculosis, and many more, were made. Various medical practices such as organ transplants and other procedures have also resulted from animal testing. Other examples include antibiotics, insulin, modern anesthetics, and treatments or new possibilities of cure for cancer, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. Activists claim that this practice is impeding the progress of modern science. But according to Dr. John Young, the Director of Comparative Medicine at Cedars-Sinai and Chairman of Americans for Medical progress, the use of animals is a vital cornerstone to medical progress, and if we would abolish the use of animals in medical research today, medical progress would slow, stop, and reverse. We have access to all these medical breakthroughs because of animal testing. That is...