...------------------------------------------------- Ethical Dilemma One ethical dilemma retained my attention. We saw briefly during class a subject regarding animal testing for medical purposes. Should be allowed to test medical purposes on animal rather than human being? From Wikipedia, in the United Kingdom there are approximately 45-70 millions cats and 40 millions dogs. It is also estimated that 3,000 cats and dogs are born every day and 4,000 rats every hour (derelictlondon.com). In other words, I would rather say that if one dies spontaneously after a scientist has realized a test, it would not be a huge damage. On the contrary, when results are positive, they can have amazing affects for the human being, in terms of cancer cure for instance. With animal testing we can discover new medicines and treatments to save millions of people from death. It is a real medical breakthrough for humans. To quote the BBC; “ The case for animal experiments is that they will produce such great benefits for humanity that it is morally acceptable to harm a few animals.” One more obvious counter argument to test medical purposes on animals is there nothing else to test on. Medical research is a difficult and intricate process. The human body is the most complex ‘machine’ and animals are relatively the closest species to us. I will not perceive the use of animals in research as an ethical issue. Testing animals can take place as long as the animal is not suffering and all the benefits will...
Words: 765 - Pages: 4
...infection and died. This incident and others like it led the United States Congress to pass the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act of 1938. This law gave the FDA regulatory authority over cosmetic products, and companies began to test products and ingredients on animals in an effort to assure safety for consumers. The FDA “urges cosmetic manufacturers to conduct whatever tests are appropriate to establish that their cosmetics are safe”, but “does not specifically mandate animal testing for cosmetic safety.” The issue that is being raised is it ethical to harm an animal for the sake of marketing a new cosmetic product. Facts: Every year, an estimated 70 million animals are maimed or killed for cosmetic testing in the US alone, and nearly $12 billion taxpayer dollars are spent yearly on the practice. Labs that use mice, rats, birds, reptiles and amphibians are exempted from the minimal protections under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The AWA authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to promulgate standards and other requirements governing the humane handling, housing, care, treatment, and transportation of certain animals by dealers, research facilities, exhibitors, carriers, and intermediate handlers. The AWA defines animal to mean “any live or dead dog, cat, monkey (nonhuman...
Words: 2120 - Pages: 9
...Animal testing has been recognized as one of the most controversial bioethical issues within the 20th to 21st century. Bioethics can first be defined as the study of the ethical and moral implications of medical research and practice. The major issue that has risen over the last century is whether or not animals should be tested in scientific or commercial purposes. Is it ethical to perform specific experimentations on various animals, if that animal is faced with life and death situations? Some individuals in our society say yes while others say no. Animal testing has remained to be a global issue for a very long time now and people wonder if this issue will ever come to an end. Animal testing has been researched and experimented with more...
Words: 1217 - Pages: 5
...Why do we use animals to be tested on? Is it ethical or unethical? Many animals are used every year to test on human products, medications, and possible cures for diseases. These animals range from anywhere from rats to dogs and cats. Some tests are to help other animals as well, but are these test necessary and do we benefit from them? In the Journal essay I will discuss the benefits of animal testing and I will also discuss the downside of animal testing. When animals are used for testing cures and medicines, it helps us know if it is safe for humans to use them. The ethical side of animal testing is that it is good for us humans, because it helps us with answers and experiments. Researchers think that animals can feel no pain because they do not have a conscious. In pence’s book it says, “Animals are like fleshy machines: their eyes reflected no soul, and no pain lay behind their external “pain behavior”. So why do people get all worked up over animal testing if animals do not feel pain like us humans do? Animals have no pain or conscious, therefore they are tested on so humans do not have to suffer the pain from experiments. If we kill animals for food, why can we not use them for beneficial experiments as well? Animals are produced all the time for our food sources, and they have to be killed to become our food. If people think animals suffer from testing, they have to suffer in being raised for our food as well. If we allow animals to be produced and slaughtered for...
Words: 997 - Pages: 4
...Part IV Katie Schulz Mrs. Polski Modern Problems May 2, 2013 Introduction~ Animal experimentation began in the early 3rd and 4th centuries BCE with the Greeks performing the first experiments on living animals. Ever since these early periods there has been a search to answer the question of whether animal testing is ethical. This question is proposed due to the suffering of animals during medical experimentation. Veterinarian, Peter M. Henrickson, found this to be the case in his experience during a veterinary class. The research began on Rodney a shepherd mix. “The first thing we did was neuter him, a seemingly benign project, except it took us an hour to complete the usual 20-minute procedure, and an anesthetic overdose kept him out for 36 hours. Afterward, he recovered his strength quickly and felt good” (Henrickson, Par. 4). They then proceeded to do an abdominal exploratory, opening his abdomen and then closing him again. “This was the first major surgery for any of us, and, with inadequate supervision, we did not close him properly. By the next morning, his incision had opened and he was sitting on his small intestine. Hastily, we sewed him up again, and he survived. But it was a week or more before he could resume walks he had come to eagerly anticipate” (Henrickson, Par. 6). After Rodney’s slow recovery they once again put him under anesthesia. “We broke his leg and repaired it with a steel pin. After this, Rodney seemed in almost constant pain, his temperature...
Words: 5691 - Pages: 23
...Word Count: 1218 Animals Have Feelings, Too Each year, more than 100 million animals, including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds are killed in the United States alone for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing (Peta). Before these innocent animals are killed, some are forced to inhale deadly chemicals, others are held down for hours while “scientists” burn their skin off or drill into their skull. Not only are these tests cruel, they are often inefficient and unpredictable. While many of these experiments often prove successful in animals like mice, they frequently do not work on humans. Testing on animals should be illegal because it is cruel to the animal and the studies done can cure an animal but not cure humans. Too many animals die each year after living an awful life as a test subject. Around one million animals, excluding rats, mice, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and agricultural animals used in agricultural experiments, are used in experiments every year in just the United Sates. Another one hundred million mice and rats are tested on, as well. In Canada, 3.2 million animals are used in experiments. In addition, around 80,000 animals are subjected to “severe pain near, at, or above the pain tolerance threshold of unanesthetized conscious animals” (Peta). It is heartbreaking to think about the pain that these animals endure every day....
Words: 1104 - Pages: 5
...Animal testing is a lot more common than we think, testing cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, vaccines for humans, and many more products. But as human beings with a large emotional capacity, there’s always something in us that tells us this isn’t right. Animal testing is a controversial topic, particularly amongst animal rights activists. Animal Testing is used when scientists aren’t sure if the substances used in the materials could cause harm to human beings. While animal testing may provide reliable scientific research, our ethics as human beings proves there are more reliable ways to obtain research, without harming animals. Scientists have been using animals for testing for a very long time, and no one doubted it. Until we saw pictures of these animals, dogs, cats, bunnies, rats most famously, primates, and many other species of animals that we bring into our home, feed and call our family members being tortured, burned with chemicals, and injected with toxic substances and many other forms. Animal testing is rarely performed with the comfort of the animals in mind. Rodents are forced to live in crammed conditions and larger animals are forced to live in spaces so small that they aren’t able to stretch their legs. This causes extreme physiological stress on the animals, causing test results to be inaccurate. Experts say that 90% of tests that prove to be safe on animals turn out to be dangerous to humans. Additionally, animals are often tested for things are not related to...
Words: 1553 - Pages: 7
...The use of non-human animals in controlled variable experiments that affect the behaviour or biological systems of such animals is the very definition of animal testing. Animal testing has always been a controversial subject: be it within the bounds of medicinal advancement, cosmetic research, or even in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Many animal rights advocates and societies, such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and BUAV (British Union for the Abolishment of Vivisection) questions the need for animal testing. The basis of their arguments consists of concerns over the regulation of these tests, the cruelty of such tests non-withstanding (PETA, 2017). They also question the legitimacy of animal testing, arguing that...
Words: 917 - Pages: 4
...Animal mistreatment must stop. Many different organizations across the country use animals to test new medications, vaccines, and company products. However, throughout these experimentations thousands of animals are being mistreated. Therefore, the organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) should lobby the government to make them more aware of animal testing in an effort to assist the abused animals being tested in facilities. Animal testing is a problem because many animals such as: dog, cats, mice, and many more are being harmed for the benefit of people. Animal testing has been going on for many decades, but no change has occurred. PETA can help reduce the problem by making congress aware of animal testing, so congress...
Words: 389 - Pages: 2
...Have you ever wondered that animal testing has contributed to many medical breakthroughs in our lifetime? For my 1st claim I would like to address that us U.S citizens and people around the globe should consider animal testing because it has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments for the people in need. According to an article on ProCon.org, this article states that “nearly every medical breakthrough in the last 100 years has resulted directly from research using animals”. This evidence shows that animal testing has contributed to a majority of the medical breakthroughs in people’s lifetime. Also from the article on ProCon.org, it states, “the polio vaccine, tested on animals, reduced the global currency of the disease from 350,000...
Words: 635 - Pages: 3
...Animals like mice, dogs, cats, and monkeys have been used in United States laboratories for medical research. The outcome from the research of animal testing has shown incredible results. While some believe that animal testing is unnecessary, it is a necessary evil because with it multiple vaccines have been made, several diseases cured, medical techniques perfected and most testing is done in a humane way. Humans have benefited significantly from animal research. Diabetes affect 1.4 million people in the United States every year. But thanks to animal research scientists have been able to make an insulin that helps keep diabetics levels steady.“Source” Insulin is a hormone produced by beta cells. When you have diabetes your pancreas does not...
Words: 411 - Pages: 2
...All animals truly deserve to lead joyful and healthy lives, yet over 100 million creatures are subjected to harsh animal testing experiments each year alone. New evidence has proved that animal tests are completely unregulated and no longer provide accurate results. Animal experimentation needs to be illegal in the United States because it is truly inhumane and completely unnecessary. Experiments using animals has been used for many centuries now. In fact, testing of animals can be traced all the way back to the early Greeks. For a time, animal experimentation was a groundbreaking tool into understanding complex diseases and how to combat said diseases. Testing animals back then was still incredibly vile, but it was at least justified...
Words: 1011 - Pages: 5
...Animal Testing Horrifying images come to mind when people discuss animal testing: mutations, glow-in-the-dark hair, and death. Since the debate began, those who oppose animal testing often propose alternative methods to replace animals. Activists suggest methods such as in vitro or computer programs. Regardless of these new advances, persisting facts endure proving animals to be useful in multiple scenarios, and animal testing to be ethical despite common belief. Animal testing has proved its usefulness in the past century in numerous ways. Credit is due to animals for the treatment to diabetes, organ transplants, and the polio vaccination (Myers). In fact, the past century attributes every stride in medical advancement to animal experimentation....
Words: 741 - Pages: 3
...Animal testing is use of animals in experimental ways for the benefit of biomedical research, and it has been a topic long argued about. To every argument, there are two sides: The American Medical Association (AMA) and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Humans (PETA). AMA’s opinion on the topic states that animal testing is necessary, while PETA highly discriminates it. These two major groups of people have been “at war” with each other on this topic of animal testing in biomedical research for decades. The AMA has recently published an article on this topic titled “Use of Animals in Biomedical Research.” AMA’s argument in this article is effective, they use persuasive techniques to support their claim, and their evidence is clear; however, the author fails to make some of his counterarguments convincing. AMA’s claim convinces you that animal testing is needed for biomedical research in many different, but persuasive ways. For example, they express that without all of the information gathered from animal testing, either man kind will be tested on, or we wouldn’t have the health benefits and treatments for diseases that we have today. In this statement, the author uses appeal to fear, by stating that humans everywhere will pay the price in terms of human pain and suffering, thus increasing fear and prejudice towards the audience. Another way the author uses persuasive techniques to support the claim, is by saying that there are limitations to the use of human subjects such...
Words: 670 - Pages: 3
...Animal Testing According to Utilitarianism, Animal testing is morally good because it brings about great utility. Animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments. As a consequence of the polio vaccine, tested on animals, it reduced the global occurrence of the disease from 350,000 cases in 1988 to 223 cases in 2012. Around 2.5 million women walk on the breast for cancer survivor walkathon with great happiness. Happiness is increased because all those family members who had to see suffering: a mom go through chemotherapy, a son who has no energy left after dialysis to be a kid, a husband who has to see his wife work double shift to pay for his medication, now can be at peace as a consequence of animal testing. The annual income of an American is about $24,062; multiply it by how many people benefit from a vaccine dealing life or death and it is a very big net gain for the country. The numbers of animals tested does not surpass the life long pleasure it brings to people’s lives. Animals are appropriate research subjects because they are similar to human beings in many ways. Chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA with humans, and mice are 98% genetically similar to humans. Animal testing produces a greater outcome for many by great advancement in technology. Animals themselves benefit from the goodness of animal testing because vaccines are used to heal them too. If vaccines were not tested on animals, millions of animals would have died from rabies, distemper...
Words: 785 - Pages: 4
