Animal testing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Animal testing - Essay Example The same government that recommended safety medical test using animals has now provided a contradictory law against animal use in the scientific experiments. Animal rights activists and ecologists have ganged up to protect the welfare of animals by all means. After experiencing the suffering of a frog during a dissection practice lesson in high school, the urge to re-evaluate the consequences of animal testing was unavoidable. The hypothesis of this paper is that animal testing is an unethical practice that should be replaced with alternative medical research procedures. Activists such as Abbot have commended the efforts of the European Centre for Validation of Alternative Methods that will liberate animals from their current burden. By taking a multi-point view, this essay aims at evaluating the pros and cons of animal testing from a neutral ground to expose in black and white the nature of this procedure. Consequently, the readers of this paper will experience an unbiased conclusio n based on the real matters in the animal research practice. Animal Testing in Medical Research My concern for animal testing started right from my high school experience when the anatomy class was required, as part of the curriculum, to dissect a frog and analyze it. I could not figure out the reason for the excitement that the anatomy students displayed throughout the whole experience. I was keen to observe the discomfort of the frog during the dissection process and I realized that animals too, just like human beings, are sensitive to pain. When the entire process was complete, it was the happiness of every student to finally relieve the frog from this torture. Later, I came to learn that the procedure of dissecting a frog was conducted for every anatomy class, not only in my high school, but in most other institutions in the world. In addition, I learnt that animals have been used for a long time not only for dissection but also as test subjects for almost every medicine that hu man beings consume today. This experience of frog dissection in high school has a direct connection with the widespread practice of animal testing that has all along seen animals under experimentation. Although animal experimentation has its own benefits in the medical sector, it is a great source of animal suffering, which should also be a concern for any civilized nation. The complexity of this situation can only be resolved if various dimensions of this issue are carefully evaluated. Animal experimentation is a scientific procedure that has grown slowly but consistently since the evolution of scientific research. The underlying fact is that physiologists in the 17th century saw animal research as a new platform to advance the biological and medical knowledge. This scientific procedure emerged when the scientists identified unique similarity between the toxicology effects of drugs in both humans and animals. Rowan, a writer of the scientist magazine, points out that although the d egree of the effects varied in the two species, scientists found that these differences were minimal and could not hinder the adoption of this procedure. Their concern was to find a testing method that would provide empirical and statistical evidence without subjecting human beings to any harm. The argument was that the human species have the highest priority when it comes to medical research. In these