Animals should be used for scientific research - Essay Example

According to Botting and Morrison, even history proves the usefulness of animals in medical research as the scientist Louis Pasteur himself used chickens to study cholera, and rabbits and guinea pigs to study anthrax. Through his study using animals, he was able to develop not only an idea on the nature of the disease but also on immunization. Moreover, the development of vaccines and antibiotics that saved millions of lives made use of animals in laboratory testing, such as the use of rabbits and mice in the development of the Hemophilus influenza vaccine that saved hundreds of children annually from death or severe brain damage.

Indeed, animal research has saved millions of lives. Secondly, animals are used for research in order to further improve animal production, and in the process to gain insights on human health. According to information from the Rutgers School, animals are being studied for the prevention of tumors in animals, for the prevention of cancers, blood clotting, heart disease and infection, for the successful development of clones, for the control of reproduction, and for the improvement of the well-being of many animals like horses.

At the same time, animal research can help medical professionals gain insight on the nature of tumor formation in human cancers (“Research”). Therefore, without this procedure, there is no direction for research on human cancer. Without prior research using animals, preventive measures for humans would not be formulated and possible medical treatment would not be realized. However, many non-government groups oppose the use of animals for scientific research. The members of these groups usually fight for animal rights and for the prevention of cruelty to animals.

However, governments like that of the United Kingdom assure the public that the use of animals for research is “carefully regulated” (“Research and testing using animals”). Moreover, according to the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, there is strict control of the use of animals in laboratory testing and research. This is based on laws like the Animal Welfare Act of the United States. These laws help monitor animals and make sure that pain in any way is alleviated if not eliminated.

Furthermore, caging and feeding of these animals are properly monitored and carefully ensured (“Animal Research FAQ”). Moreover, those who conduct animal research have been issued licenses, and only those with a license would be able to properly monitor the safety of these animals and would be able to alleviate the pain that they are supposed to suffer (“Understanding Animal Procedures”). Nevertheless, those who fight for animal rights are actually relentless especially when it comes to the use of marmosets for the development of the cure for Parkinson’s disease (McKie).

What animal rights advocates are protesting is the deliberate injection of Parkinson’s disease into these marmosets. However, most of these animal rights advocates basically are uninformed regarding the procedures and potential benefits of such experiments, and that they do not realize that the pain experienced by these marmosets is monitored and alleviated by medical experts. Besides, the benefits of finding a cure for Parkinson’ disease are far greater considering that hundreds of thousands of people in the United Kingdom and an even larger figure in the United States can be spared from suffering in case the