Animal Testing (also known as animal experimentation or animal research)
Animal Testing
Animal testing (also known as animal experimentation or animal research) is the use of non-human animal models for research and development by academic institutes and commercial pharmaceutical companies. At this very moment, there are millions of animals being kept behind cages in solitude, waiting to be sacrificed in the name of science or industry. With the sharp rise in the use of animals in research, it has become an open debate as to whether or not we have an intrinsic right to use innocent animal lives when animal models don’t act as ideal study models as per the human body.
Scientists use animals in biological and medical research more as a matter of tradition and not because animal research has particularly proved successful or better than other modes of experimentation. In fact, animal models have never been validated and the myth that animal models are necessary for biomedical research is unsupported by scientific literature. There is growing awareness of the limitations of animal research and its inability to make reliable predictions about human health.
Major medical advances cannot always be attributed to experiments on animals. It is a known fact by scientists that animal models are flawed and imperfect approximations of the human body and human disease. Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine and several British universities published a paper in the British Medical Journal titled "Where Is the Evidence That Animal Research Benefits Humans?" (2004). The researchers systematically examined animal studies and concluded that “not much evidence is there” to support the idea that animal experimentation has benefited humans. In fact, many of the most important advances in health are attributable to human studies, including the discovery of the relationships between cholesterol and heart disease, smoking and cancer. Between 1900 and 2000 there has been an increase in life expectancy in the United States from 47 to 77 years (Utah
Animal testing (also known as animal experimentation or animal research) is the use of non-human animal models for research and development by academic institutes and commercial pharmaceutical companies. At this very moment, there are millions of animals being kept behind cages in solitude, waiting to be sacrificed in the name of science or industry. With the sharp rise in the use of animals in research, it has become an open debate as to whether or not we have an intrinsic right to use innocent animal lives when animal models don’t act as ideal study models as per the human body.
Scientists use animals in biological and medical research more as a matter of tradition and not because animal research has particularly proved successful or better than other modes of experimentation. In fact, animal models have never been validated and the myth that animal models are necessary for biomedical research is unsupported by scientific literature. There is growing awareness of the limitations of animal research and its inability to make reliable predictions about human health.
Major medical advances cannot always be attributed to experiments on animals. It is a known fact by scientists that animal models are flawed and imperfect approximations of the human body and human disease. Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine and several British universities published a paper in the British Medical Journal titled "Where Is the Evidence That Animal Research Benefits Humans?" (2004). The researchers systematically examined animal studies and concluded that “not much evidence is there” to support the idea that animal experimentation has benefited humans. In fact, many of the most important advances in health are attributable to human studies, including the discovery of the relationships between cholesterol and heart disease, smoking and cancer. Between 1900 and 2000 there has been an increase in life expectancy in the United States from 47 to 77 years (Utah