Animal Experimentation - Essay Example

October 17th Animal Experimentation The issue of animal testing draws some strong sentiments aimed at thebenefits and demerits of the practice. For this reason, this paper aims at examining the available attitudes relating to animal testing and the measure that should be taken to treat animals humanely. Animal testing should be conducted following its immense health benefits towards humans in relation to assisting preterm babies and children. In this light, animal experiments have helped to come up with a solution to ensure that preterm babies survive despite their weak bodies and health. This is due to experiments conducted on lambs using steroids that have proved the strengthening properties of steroids on their lungs. For this reason, animal testing gives hope to parents of such babies by giving them an opportunity to increase their child’s chances of survival. These tests on animals show the influence of corticosteroids on the young and weak, breathing system of animals involved, lamb, and sheep, by speeding up the rate of development. In children, it has thus, saved lives by developing surfactants for babies that cannot develop on their own. Studies due to the same experiments have even improved the chances of survival for children born to mothers who received doses of corticosteroids, as opposed to those that did not. It is for this reason that animal testing should be done, sustained, and supported. In addition, animal testing should be conducted for the discoveries it has advanced towards treatment of most of the world’s known diseases and conditions. In light of this, scientists make use of animals to develop new cures and treatments for conditions such as hypertension. This is done using venom from highly poisonous snakes, all in an attempt to improve the quality of life for humans and improve longevity. The use of venom in this case is because of accidental discoveries and not direct experiments on animals to determine the potential. This is following collapsing of banana workers after potent bites from certain snake breeds, which resulted in drastic fall, in their blood pressure. Animal experiments have helped improve human life by alleviating suffering and certain ailments from their lives. This creates a strong basis for the progression of animal testing. In addition, animal testing has helped create treatments for cancer, in the form of therapy to alleviate human suffering from the condition. Concerning this, animal testing has helped saved lives by using animals in experiments to test how humans are likely to respond to certain treatment measures and conditions. As a result, it saves a lot of time that would have been spent in testing the drugs and treatment conventionally and getting approval. Instead, I believe that these animal help to alleviate this dilemma by ensuring that medication and other forms of treatment availed to humans are suitable for their wellbeing, or at least not harmful to the least effect. This is as opposed to direct treatments and therapies that may see humans lose their lives due to strong after-effects of treatments and therapies. This is case especially for cancer treatments, in which therapies are first tried with animals before advancing to humans for more tests. Moreover, animal tests assist in production of medication that cannot be produced synthetically, as was the case for early insulin for diabetics. In this light, insulin was derived from animals to regulate glucose levels in the blood stream and keep diabetes in check. Animal tests also help in the development of vaccines to fend off diseases and pathogens off the human body and sustain good health. However, in spite of all the benefits that animal testing is known to have, there are people of the contrary opinion on the use of animals for experiments aimed at improving human life. For this reason, they believe that the experiments should not be conducted as they are a selfish means for humans to increase their longevity, while exterminating other animal species for their own wellbeing. In light of these, those opposed to the practice do not view that they are already beneficiaries of the experiments, as they are treated using the same medication from the said experiments. In the practice of animal testing, a number of issues, on the animals used should be treated have come up. In this regard, regulations from most authorities have been created to act as guidelines. These dictate the behavior that humans are expected to exhibit towards animals, despite the harmful effects to which they expose animals. The above case lies in ethical issues on the rights and wrongs that humans participate in and their relation to animals. In this regard, the question lies on the weight of the benefits that humans acquire form their experiments and the moral acceptability of the said experiments, in relation to the use of animals in ways that cause them harm ("Guide for the Care..” 2). However, the benefits alone do not dictate the morality of having animals suffer for the sake of humans thus, the need for a set of ethical regulation. As a result, the guideline created is aimed at improving the wellbeing of animals in the laboratory, by looking into the humane treatment care and treatment of the same. In turn, the quality of research and advancement of scientific knowledge is improved and guaranteed. Consequently, because of the above reasons the three Rs principle exists, which represent a practical method of practicing animal welfare. Replacement refers to methods that can be used to avoid the use of animals in research, where the replacements should be absolute to eliminate animal testing. It could also include replacing the vertebrates used in medical experiments with animals that are lower on the phylogenic scale and computer programs ("Guide for the Care.” 5). In this case, these animals are meant to act as simulators for the different reactions and provide feedback for experimental information. The second R stands for Refinement, in which modifications of husbandry and experimental procedures should be practiced. This is in an attempt to enhance animal wellbeing and reduce or alleviate pain that the animals undergo, as well as distress altogether. The final R stands for Reduction that involves strategies for acquiring similar levels of data or information from fewer animals, or maximizing the information extracted from a given number of animals without adverse effects on the said animals, both in pain and distress ("Guide for the Care..” 5). These stand for the animal-human interactions in the laboratory conducting experiments aimed at improving human wellbeing, as well as that of animals. In conclusion, animal testing remains a controversial issue in the medical field due to its affiliations with ethics and the benefits that humans gain. Personally, I believe it is crucial to have practices aimed at benefitting the two parties by having the least amount of harm possible inflicted on animals for the benefit of humans in medical research. Work Cited “ Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals”. 8th ed. Worshington, D. C: National Academies Press. 2011. Web.17 Oct. 2012. < http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/Guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-Laboratory-animals.pdf> Read More