Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing
Animal testing is used for commercial or scientific reasons to find cures and treatments, and to ensure the safety of products for humans. Laboratories prefer to use animals such as mice, rats, and monkeys because they are so closely related to humans and will get more accurate results. The most common tests that are performed are toxicity and corrosivity tests, genetic manipulation, inflicted pain and diseases, surgical procedures, and injecting human diseases into animals. Scientists are working on new alternative methods to replace animal testing to improve many different factors such as social and environmental factors. New methods are being used but have not yet replaced animal testing due to animal testing being the default method but
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Alternative methods not only save animals, but it also saves money too as using animals for testing costs more money. One of the alternatives is called microdosing. Microdosing is when a very small amount of a drug is given to a human only once and then, the scientists will monitor how the drug reacts in the body (“Alternatives to Animal Testing” [www.peta.org]). This would not hurt animals or humans in any way due to the extremely small amount of the drug. A second alternative that scientists use is called “in vitro” testing where human tissue and cells is tested on in test tubes (“Alternatives in Testing” [www.neavs.org]). This method gives scientists more accurate results as the experiment is being performed on human tissue instead of animal tissue. A third alternative would be using artificial skin. This artificial skin would be made from human skins cells that weren’t used during plastic surgery and would be grown inside a gel made with collagen. “Scientists can use this ‘skin’ to test sunscreens and cosmetics to see whether they might cause irritation or damage to real skin” (Watson, Stephanie. "Chapter 5: Alternatives to Animal Testing." Animal Testing: Issues and Ethics. Pg. 41). Another alternative is using a 3D printer and “bio-ink” to create artificial tissue mostly made of gelatin (An Alternative to Animal Testing. N.p., 18 Oct. 2015. Web. ). With the artificial tissue, the scientists will be able to test any cosmetic product that needs to be tested without harming anyone or
Alternative methods not only save animals, but it also saves money too as using animals for testing costs more money. One of the alternatives is called microdosing. Microdosing is when a very small amount of a drug is given to a human only once and then, the scientists will monitor how the drug reacts in the body (“Alternatives to Animal Testing” [www.peta.org]). This would not hurt animals or humans in any way due to the extremely small amount of the drug. A second alternative that scientists use is called “in vitro” testing where human tissue and cells is tested on in test tubes (“Alternatives in Testing” [www.neavs.org]). This method gives scientists more accurate results as the experiment is being performed on human tissue instead of animal tissue. A third alternative would be using artificial skin. This artificial skin would be made from human skins cells that weren’t used during plastic surgery and would be grown inside a gel made with collagen. “Scientists can use this ‘skin’ to test sunscreens and cosmetics to see whether they might cause irritation or damage to real skin” (Watson, Stephanie. "Chapter 5: Alternatives to Animal Testing." Animal Testing: Issues and Ethics. Pg. 41). Another alternative is using a 3D printer and “bio-ink” to create artificial tissue mostly made of gelatin (An Alternative to Animal Testing. N.p., 18 Oct. 2015. Web. ). With the artificial tissue, the scientists will be able to test any cosmetic product that needs to be tested without harming anyone or