Is morality valuable when it comes to medical progression or human success? Animal testing is a familiar concept but many do not know the extent of what is involved when it comes down to what the scientists use or how they experiment. Whether it is called animal testing, research, or killing, it is a cruel practice that reveals the results of product use before products are put up for human consumption. Over one hundred million animals are involuntarily subjected to unnecessary research for cosmetology and medicine production(Orlans 129). Experimenting on animals goes against animal rights, can be inaccurate, and is often exorbitant and wasteful.
Using animals for scientific and commercial testing has been a heated controversy for decades. Animal testing goes as far back as the fourth and fifth centuries in ancient Greece because they thought animals were necessary to advance medical and biological knowledge. Back in the earlier centuries, they used pigs and goats, but now scientists experiment on rats, rabbits, dogs, cats, and fish. LD50 is the most common test used and is also known for inflicting excruciating pain and suffering on ordinarily rabbits and dogs. LD50, or lethal dose 50%, refers to the amount of a particular substance to kill someone. To determine what the lethal dose of a product is, scientists keep applying the product or injecting it into the animal until it kills them. However, this practice has been proven to be scientifically unjustifiable and very inaccurate. There are many other types of tests, but being able to identify the lethal dose is a very important thing to determine because not knowing it could kill the consumer.
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There are many viable reasons to stop animal testing. One reason is that this is a very costly endeavor. The US government spends approximately sixteen billion dollars annually for animal testing and is a lot of the time unreliable. Also, because humans differ from animals, certain tests and outcomes can be inaccurate, even though at an anatomical and physiological level we may appear similar. Although animals are not humans, that does not mean they can’t feel pain or emotion. They can feel pain, fear, and discomfort even though they are not as developed as humans. Scientists may test because it is the easier route, however, there are other viable alternatives; these include sophisticated tests (using human cells and tissue), advanced modeling techniques, and other chemical tests.
Experiments on animals are inhumane and totally go against animal rights. What are animal rights, well, they are rights belonging to animals to live free from use in medical research, hunting, and other services to humans. Therefore, subjecting animals to agonizing testing violates those rights because they are not given recourse in the situation. People may think human life is superior to theirs but to go as far as to try to make our lives better should not be justification for the exploitation of animals. Scientists believe animals have no say and serve humans, but we should live in peace and coexist with them like pets are companions and not servants. Gary L. Francione has respectfully argued that animals and humans are individuals, where both are living creatures, but because of the idea that they can not think rationally or abstractly, makes many believe it to be acceptable to treat them as property(Cram 1292). Animals do not exist for humans and our uses, they have the same moral status as humans and are to be treated well with respect.
To take away, animal testing can waste lives, money, and corrupt morality for a half-accurate result. Therefore, animals should not be exploited for the testing of toxicity or safety in a product, because animals have rights so we don’t have to waste their lives for human benefit when there are so many viable alternatives.
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