Preview

Animal Testing Dilemmas

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
802 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Animal Testing Dilemmas
This essay will discuss the dilemmas of testing drugs on human beings, as well as the dilemmas once we shift testing drugs on animals. There are several ethical dilemmas when it comes to testing drugs on people in general. A number of the tests can be potentially life threatening. The new drugs may cause severe reactions which might not be treatable later on. For years, scientists have been experimenting on humans. The majority that were used for testing were the insane, prisoners, and charity patients. The problem that scientists ran into besides the ethical dilemmas was that there were not enough individuals to test these drugs on. They eventually started doing tests without consent. This raised multiple ethical concerns in society and scientists …show more content…
It’s not ethical to treat such huge quantities of animals in such terrible ways. Scientists are inflicting a lot of pain on animals in hopes that they will have gained some sort of benefit for humanity. One ethical dilemma we are faced with is the uncertainty that drugs tested on animals will work in identical ways on humans. There could be years testing with a specific drug that kills thousands of animals with no positive results. All those animals’ will be harmed and taken for absolutely no reason. Another ethical dilemma is is that animals do not have identical diseases, sicknesses, and illnesses as humans. Animals cannot get such human diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which means that some tests for curing certain diseases will not work by testing animals. The third ethical dilemma that testing drugs on animals does not show the side effects that they'll have on humans. The drug might cause the animals no harm, but in turn kill the first humans testing the drug. It may happen the opposite way around furthermore. There are not certain ways in which a specific test on an animal can directly relate to a human …show more content…
There are several studies that are done that do not have any benefit to people in the least. There are tests done with rats that do not relate to humans in the smallest amount bit. An example of this test is rats were placed in a swimming pool one at a time, and without any warning, a wire net was placed over their body, forcing them underwater for 30 seconds at a time to create an experience of submerged shock. This test is cruel to animals with no respect to scientific research that helps humans. Scientists don't regulate what tests are performed on animals because they feel they can compare any test to humans without having to preform them. Even if the test is specifically geared toward humans like drug testing, the sample needed to test the amount of new drugs coming out is high. Medications are typically tweaked with minor ingredients that require extra tests and extra

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the article “Ethical Boundary-work in the Animal Research Laboratory” Pru Hobson-West writes about the three obstacles in regards to the occasion of talking about the ethics behind animal testing. The three “boundaries” that Hobson-West refers to are the need for animals to be tested with reference to the advancement of medicines, the impacts of “Home Office regulation” and the third is the difference between Human and Non-human animals (1). One of the main arguments that supports the use of animals in scientific experiments stated in this article is that when deciding whether or not it is ethical to use animals, you must determine whether or not humans have a higher moral value than animals (660). Another argument is whether or not restrictions…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot mentions animal experimentation. Different kinds of animals are used in many different experiments. Most experiments are used to help humans more than to help animals. Animal experimentation should not happen because most of the time, experiments can lead to animal cruelty. Cloning is one example of an experiment.…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    APA Code Of Ethics Essay

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dissections, surgeries, medical interventions, are means to allow a person to gain the best health that they can. However, to ensure that the health of humans are met, animals suffer as a consequence. For the well-being of humans in the present time or the future, animals are brought in harms way. It is not justifiable to allow more extreme research procedures to be permitted on animals when they would be considered unethical if done to humans. There should not be a separate code of ethics applied to human and animal research.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inaccurate Animal Testing

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As a result of this, nine out of every ten trial medicines that look safe and appear to be effective on animals, fail when they are given to humans. Because animals don’t react the same way as humans, not only do the failed tests delay medical progress, but also they are a waste of animal’s lives, and a waste of money that is spent into the research and tests. Animals have different anatomic, cellular, and metabolic structures than humans have. If a new product is passed just because it is safe on animals and isn’t on humans, that could be a very dangerous situation. One instance when this occurred was in 1950 when a sleeping pill worked on animals but when given to humans it caused 10,000 babies to be born with severe birth defects. Another time, a drug for arthritis was safe on mice but when administered to humans caused 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths. Animal testing can make researchers oversea potential cures and treatments. Some substances that are harmful to animals, are helpful to humans. For example, aspirin is dangerous to some animals. Arthur Allen says, “A source of human suffering may be the dozens of promising drugs that get shelved when they cause problems in animals that may not be relevant for humans.” (“Of Mice or Men: The Problems with Animal Testing”). Of all the medicines that pass animal trials and are ready for human…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Due to advanced technology, scientists have found many new options for testing that avoid animal cruelty. Over the years scientists have found testing on Lab-grown cells and organs to be a great alternative to animal testing. This is commonly used for testing cosmetics and some believe if this method continues to develop, animal testing will eventually decrease in popularity and be seen as unnecessary. Another option is human clinical tests. These tests consist of humans voluntarily trying new drugs, biological products, and medical devices. Although there are risks of the experiment causing harm or injury, keep in mind that these clinical tests are voluntary and us humans have the choice, unlike…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Benefits Of Animal Testing

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In animal testing, countless animals are experimented on and then killed after their use is up. Some are injured and will still live the remainder of their life in captivity. The doctors will not do anything to help the animals that are in pain that happen to be the reason because of them. It is the aspect of animals testing that many view as a major negative against the practice, as it seems that the animal died in vain because no direct benefit to humans occurred. Even though animals and humans have many things in common like how we both have the same organ system, there are also many things that are different between animals and humans. Many animals cannot handle or take the same medication as humans, most the surgeries that are operated on animals are just too strong for an animal to take so they end up dying or sick for the rest of their lives. (Animal Testing…

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Animal Testing

    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages

    “Examples of medications that have been the result of animal testing are Penicillin, several asthma treatments, cancer and HIV drugs, vaccines, antibiotics, and insulin (Occupy Theory, 1).” Since there can be new medications found from utilising this form of testing, many people see it as beneficial to the human population. Since it’s more beneficial to humans than it is a bigger hurt to the animal species, most people believe that animal testing is okay. But, according to William H. Farland and Vicki Vaughn-Dellarco, “Abelson comments that laboratory studies of chemicals and their use in risk assessment have not been shown to have substantially benefited human health (1908).” I had interviewed my AP Biology teacher Mr. Nolan Flores. He teaches regents biology, AP biology, and astronomy. Mr. Flores even teaches animal behaviors in biology so he has a basic knowledge of animals. When I had interviewed Mr. Flores he had talked about his personal view on animal testing. He concurred with the prior statement that if it is more beneficial to test on an animal because it could save someone's life, then he is for animal testing. For him, he also stated that it depends on the situation and if the testing is ethical or not. If it involves cruel or unusual punishment to the animal, then he is against…

    • 1592 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though many breakthroughs have been made as a result of animal experimentation, many of the drugs that have been approved after animal testing had to be subsequently withdrawn because of harmful side effects. In fact, most experiments done on animals that are nothing like human beings, such as rats and mice. This undermines the dispute that these experiments are a reliable guide to human reactions. Scientifically, as well as morally, most animal experimentation is to be rejected as the reaction of a mouse to a substance is no guide to human reactions. Each species has its own unique…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In addition with no enforced laws, animals produce different results than humans. For instance, lead in w/transition “Even within the same species, similar disparities can be found among different sexes, breeds, age and weight ranges, and ethnic backgrounds” (“Results from Research…” n.pag.) The research people are doing will have an unlikely result in succeeding and or curing because they do not consider different characteristics of animals. Even with animals of the same species, there is no guarantee that all outcomes will be the same. Examine results show, “Animal studies are flawed by design. In addition to the fact that animals make poor surrogates for humans, the design of animal experiments is often inherently flawed, making it that much more unlikely that results obtained from such studies will be useful” (“Results from Research…”n.pag) The experiments we use on animals have no impact on human lives because even though animals have a similar body structure, they do not always correspond with the human anatomy. Scientists should put in more consideration with size, shape, skin, and different ways breeds function.…

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Animals testing is unethical because the pain and suffering that they are subjected to is not worth any possible benefits to humans. Scientists inject animals with irritating chemicals, genetically manipulate them to cause rare and painful genetic diseases, give them cancer and other diseases, and cause other injuries in the name of science. These animals are not given painkillers and are forced to endure prolonged agony before eventually dying…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is argued that testing products on animals is cruel and inhumane. Animals go through procedures without anesthetic and are normally killed by breaking their necks or decapitating them. Animals are force fed, forced to inhale chemicals, exhausted from physical restraint, and sometimes starved of food and water. Researchers burn them and create boils, cuts, and other wounds, only to observe the healing process. People that agree with the methods of animal testing argue that animal’s lives are irrelevant compared to a human’s life and that they have a similar anatomy of a human being. It may be that chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA with humans, and mice are 98% genetically similar to humans but as “Paul Furlong, Professor of Clinical Neuroimaging at Aston University, says, "it's very hard to create an animal model that even equates closely to what we're trying to achieve in the human." Thomas Hartung, Professor of evidence-based toxicology at Johns Hopkins University, argues for alternatives to animal testing because "we are not 70 kg rats." (ProCon, Screen 1) Scientists believe that animals make better testing subjects due to their short life spans, which makes sense, but animal tests do not reliably predict results in…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethics Of Animal Testing

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Animals have been used in research for countless numbers of years, dating back all the way to BCE. The number of animals in testing has grown as the years have passed, and their purpose has resulted in treatments for lung cancer, childhood leukemia, breast cancer, and many others. When most people think about animal science, they think about the cruelty and immoral treatment of animals; they do not bother to think about the side effects of animal testing. The medicine we buy or are prescribed, the lotions we use, and everyday makeup we wear would not be available without the use of animals in labs. With all the benefits that come with animal testing, one might ask why anyone would be opposed to animal testing. However, an article entitled “Ethics…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Human Society International it states that 9/10 candidate medicines that appear safe and effective in animal studies fail when given to humans. This shows that every 10 experiments done on animals only 1 will work. This also shows that animals are being killed even if the experiment doesn’t work. In the UK an estimated 70,000 people are killed or severely disabled every year by unexpected reactions to drugs. All these drugs have passed animal tests (Human Society International). This shows that animal testing isn’t reliable if the medicines that are approved are killing people who are taking them. This is important because if the medicines are killing people that have been tested on animals, their should be a new way to make sure they’re safe.This shows that animal testing is useless and there should be another way to make sure drugs are safe before giving them to…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Animal Testing Is Wrong

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “We have moved away from studying human disease in humans. … We all drank the Kool-Aid on that one, me included. … The problem is that [animal testing] hasn’t worked, and it’s time we stopped dancing around the problem. … We need to refocus and adapt new methodologies for use in humans to understand disease biology in humans.” (Unknown, PETA)…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Each year, millions of animals suffer and die in the process of inhumane testing for the purposes of drug and chemical research, and medical experiments and training exercises. Animals including cats, dogs, rabbits, and mice are force fed harmful substances that are infected with lethal viruses causing reactions like brain damage, strokes, and heart attacks. Not only are these experiments painful to the animals and sometimes fatal, but also they fail to accurately reflect human reactions and are not required by the FDA.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays