Animal testing is a process of using non-humans for the purpose of experiment. This initiative of animal testing can be traced back to 4th and 3rd centuries BCE practiced by the ancient Greeks. It is potentially used to determine the side effect of newly invented medicine before it is distributed to people. It has helped tremendously in Medicine and Biomedical field resulting in invention from Vaccine to Insulin. However, the ethicality of animal testing has been debating for years. Ethical dilemma on this issue is that a group of people believe that testing upon animals is unethical as it harms animals which cannot express their feeling by themselves; it is lack of voluntary participation of animal; it neglects the scientific information of distinctive differences between human and animal, while another group of people claim this to be ethical as it gives enormous benefits to not only human being but also animals themselves: the alternative for this is human testing which is clearly unethical and unacceptable. However, I personally support animal testing as it is ethically acceptable and practically benefiting act despite other people regard this unethical as they believe it undermine animal rights.
Some people, precisely animal right activists, condemn animal testing and claim this to be ethically unacceptable. Scientifically, it is proven that animals do have feeling and pain. Animal testing causes animals physical and psychological pains. Their natural freedoms of movements are restrained. They are literally prisoned by locking them up in a small places mostly covered. Moreover, their feeling of pain has usually been neglected by injecting them for their blood samples, by giving them electrical shock sometimes, by transmitting viruses into them in order to test their resistant power and quite often killing them after experiment. Therefore, animal testing is unethical and should be stopped.
An ethical dilemma can be resolved by looking at and comparing the potential harmfulness and total benefits which can be obtained out of the action we perform. It is inarguable that animals do have the sense of feeling and pain. However, through animal testing, scientists do not deliberately intend to hurt animals. For the sake of the well-being of humanity, more generally all creatures, , we are required to harm a small amount of animals. If the outcomes from their pain could give a chance to upgrade the humanity welfare, it is worth doing so. Scientists are very cautious that unnecessary anxiety and pain can deviate their research from accuracy. Moreover, the consistent government inspection on laboratories makes sure that the researchers are following the three Rs as the law prescribed: Reduction, Refinement and Replacement. While reduction and replacement factors are important to maintain, refinement which is to reduce the pain of animals in minimum level is equally and utterly important. Therefore, this is inaccurate to claim that animals are inhumanely tortured during experiments. Since animals are being used for the benefits of all animal kinds including human, it is ethical.
Involuntary participation of animals in research is, in a way, not respecting the right of animals. Since animals are creatures which also have emotional feelings: pain, sad, happy, anxiety, stress fear and so on, like human beings, we should give equal respect to animals as well, according to animal rights activists. As we cannot test a human being without his or her willingness, we should not also experiments on animals who cannot express their feeling of unwillingness. Their innocent has been misusing by forcing them into laboratories to let them feel inexpressible pain and stress.
It is true that animals do have the feeling of pain, stress, anxiety and sadden or emotional feelings like human. But that does not mean that animal and human have equal and similar rights. Moral status of animal and human is different. Historically and naturally, we have been using animals for human beings survival. They are naturally there to complement humans’ lives. Although we have duties upon animals welfare, it does not mean that we should stop using or utilizing them. Instead, we should stand against abusing animals in harmful ways. We should, however, use animals in situations when it is critical for the world. We cannot define an act as abused when it could give benefits to his/her fellow beings positively.
The opponents of animal testing indicates that scientifically the testing on animals can not accurately benefit human beings as they are biologically not similar to human beings. A successful testing on animals cannot bring about the equal and accurate results on human. Looking at the experiment of HIV, animals can extremely resist on HIV virus while human being cannot. As a result of this, the pain suffered by the animal during experiment is worthless since it did not benefit human being. This is, therefore, undermining the right of animals. The kind of experiment which could not bring any goods but the pointless pain of animal should be regarded as unethical.
It is normally unacceptable such kind of claims which are based on relatively small sample size. It is illogical to expect every experiment to be successful. There will always be error in every research. The point is we need to look at the possibility of facing errors. We can clarify as unsuccessful contribution if the degree of occurring errors is unexpectedly high. Providing couple of examples which have failed to bring about the satisfactory results will not cover up the numerous successful examples which did live up to the expectations.
In fact, animal based research has contributed immensely for the improvement of our lives both in terms of length and qualities. Cure for most of the challenging diseases of today has developed with the help of animal experimentations. Evolving Herceptin and Tamoxifen, a firm hope for thousands of women and men with breast cancer, has eventually developed from animals testing. Finding of insulin, a solution to handle the danger of diabetes, has come into existence with the help of animal testing. Vaccines for all types of viral diseases like Hepatitis B and C, Asthma, Polio, Chicken pox and so on are essentially required animal testing. The list of benefits received from animal testing will endlessly go on. Therefore, comparing the huge amount of success out of animal testing to a very small amount of failure is logically desirable and acceptable. Despite the fact that animals are different from human biologically, there are uncountable correlational factors which brings an equation from the animal successful testing to human beings successful implication.
In conclusion, animal testing is ultimately ethical because the amount of advantages it gives not only to human beings but also to animals is relatively and comparatively higher than the amount of harm it caused to animals. The necessity of animal testing is still demanding in today world. The alternative which can give the same benefits or more benefits towards the advancement in human developing is Human Testing which is totally unacceptable under any ground. Therefore, animal testing is the only possible way to fulfill the medical needs of today world.
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