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    Animal Testing Essay

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    Mohamed Ahmed
    The document discusses the debate around using animals in research and product testing. It provides data on the number of animals used and perspectives on their use and rights. The document argues that animal testing should be eliminated because it violates animal rights, causes them pain and suffering, and alternative testing methods exist.

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    Animal Testing Essay

    Uploaded by

    Mohamed Ahmed
    587 views2 pages
    The document discusses the debate around using animals in research and product testing. It provides data on the number of animals used and perspectives on their use and rights. The document argues that animal testing should be eliminated because it violates animal rights, causes them pain and suffering, and alternative testing methods exist.

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    The document discusses the debate around using animals in research and product testing. It provides data on the number of animals used and perspectives on their use and rights. The document argues that animal testing should be eliminated because it violates animal rights, causes them pain and suffering, and alternative testing methods exist.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    587 views2 pages

    Animal Testing Essay

    Uploaded by

    Mohamed Ahmed
    The document discusses the debate around using animals in research and product testing. It provides data on the number of animals used and perspectives on their use and rights. The document argues that animal testing should be eliminated because it violates animal rights, causes them pain and suffering, and alternative testing methods exist.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Assignment # 3 Academic writing

    Stop Animal Testing

    Using animals in research and to test the safety of products has been a topic of heated
    debate for decades. According to data collected by F. Barbara Orlans for her book, In the
    Name of Science: Issues in Responsible Animal Experimentation, sixty percent of all
    animals used in testing are used in biomedical research and product-safety testing (62).
    People have different feelings for animals; many look upon animals as companions while
    others view animals as a means for advancing medical techniques or furthering
    experimental research. the fact remains that animals are being exploited by research
    facilities and cosmetics companies all across the country and all around the world. Although
    humans often benefit from successful animal research, the pain, the suffering, and the
    deaths of animals are not worth the possible human benefits. Therefore, animals should not
    be used in research or to test the safety of products.

    First, animals' rights are violated when they are used in research. Tom Regan, a philosophy
    professor at North Carolina State University, states: "Animals have a basic moral right to
    respectful treatment. . . . Yet animals' rights are violated when they are used in research
    because they are not given a choice. Animals are subjected to tests that are often painful or
    cause permanent damage or death, and they are never given the option of not participating
    in the experiment. Regan further says, for example, that "animal [experimentation] is
    morally wrong no matter how much humans may benefit because the animal's basic right
    has been infringed. Risks are not morally transferable to those who do not choose to take
    them" (qtd. in Orlans 26). Animals do not willingly sacrifice themselves for the
    advancement of human welfare and new technology. Their decisions are made for them
    because they cannot vocalize their own preferences and choices.

    Next, the pain and suffering that experimental animals are subject to is not worth any
    possible benefits to humans. "The American Veterinary Medial Association defines animal
    pain as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience perceived as arising from a specific
    region of the body and associated with actual or potential tissue damage" (Orlans 129).
    Animals feel pain in many of the same ways that humans do; in fact, their reactions to pain
    1
    Assignment # 3 Academic writing
    are virtually identical (both humans and animals scream, for example). When animals are
    used for product toxicity testing or laboratory research, they are subjected to painful and
    frequently deadly experiments. Two of the most commonly used toxicity tests are the
    Draize test and the LD50 test, both of which are infamous for the intense pain and suffering
    they inflect upon experimental animals. In the Draize test the substance or product being
    tested is placed in the eyes of an animal (generally a rabbit is used for this test).

    Finally, the testing of products on animals is completely unnecessary because viable


    alternatives are available. Many cosmetic companies, for example, have sought better ways
    to test their products without the use of animal subjects. In Against Animal Testing, a
    pamphlet published by The Body Shop, a well-known cosmetics and bath-product company
    based in London, the development of products that "use natural ingredients, like bananas
    and Basil nut oil, as well as others with a long history of safe human usage" is advocated
    instead of testing on animals (3). Furthermore, the Draize test has become practically
    obsolete because of the development of a synthetic cellular tissue that closely resembles
    human skin. Researchers can test the potential damage that a product can do to the skin by
    using this artificial "skin" instead of testing on animals.

    In conclusion, animal testing should be eliminated because it violates animals' rights, it


    causes pain and suffering to the experimental animals, and other means of testing product
    toxicity are available. Humans cannot justify making life better for themselves by randomly
    torturing and executing thousands of animals per year to perform laboratory experiments or
    to test products. Animals should be treated with respect and dignity, and this right to decent
    treatment is not upheld when animals are exploited for selfish human gain. After all,
    humans are animals too.

    Against Animal Testing. The Body Shop, 1993.

    Balls, Michael. "Time to Reform Toxic Tests." New Scientist 134 (1992):31-33.

    Orlans, F. Barbara. In the Name of Science: Issues in Responsible Animal


    Experimentation. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.

    Silcock, Sheila. "Is Your Experiment Really Necessary?" New Scientist 134 (1992): 32-34.

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