Medical Laboratory Technicians - Essay Example

Medical Laboratory Technicians Introduction Medical laboratory technicians are often confronted with issues in theirday-to-day activities. However, these issues all have different perspectives depending on an individual’s school of thought. The issues that confront the practitioners in this field are sometimes a cause of controversy. This is because there are conflicting opinions about them. As such, those who believe in the ideological issue at hand tend to support while those against disagree. For example, every year 17 million or so animals are used in laboratory experiments. This however has prompted many controversies. Therefore, this essay seeks to discuss the issue of use of animals in laboratory experiments because there are some who actually believe that animals should not be used in laboratory experiments (Flegr & Jaroslav 127). As a medical practitioner in the lab, the controversy that suround use of animals in the laboratory is my issue of interest. Therefore, from exploring this issue I seek to gain an understanding of importance and the implications of using animals in laboratory experience. I am aware about the fact that in deed many laboratory experiments conducted are using animals as specimen with the world statistics reflecting an average of 17million animals each year. From this topic, I do not know what kinds of animals are used in the laboratory for experiments, what the scientists are looking for so that they use the animals and why they have to use the animals and not humans. I want to find out the benefits of using animals in experiments in medical laboratories (Prasad, Cole & Haase 151). Problem definition Medical researchers have been using animals in the laboratory for experiments. This has seen the number of animals killed or used each year hit an average of 17 million. In their experiments, certain animals die while others are negatively affected by the given experiments. This practice is endangering the lives of these animals and as such, it is an issue of concern. Such animals like mice, cats, rats, primates, rabbits, dogs, chimpanzees and other animals are normally locked inside very cold, barren cages in laboratories across the country. They are languishing in pain, ache with loneliness, and they long to roam free and use their minds. Instead, what they can only do is just sit and waits in fear of the next terrorizing and painful procedure that is waiting to be performed on them (Chen, Fei, et al. 260). Human tests Many experiments conducted have been conducted on human test topics all over the world. These experiments include: Deliberately infecting people with deadly infections Exposing people to biological as well as chemical weapons and human radiation experiments. Injecting people with toxic or poisonous and radioactive chemicals e.g studying health effects of radioactive iodine in newborns and pregnant women. Researchers in USA gave pregnant women iodine-131 purposely to study the behavior of the aborted embryo at certain stages of development and the extent to which radioactive iodine crosses the placental barrier. Surgical experiments, interrogation as well as torture experiments. Tests involving mind-altering substances. Many of such tests were performed on children, poor people, the sick, racial minorities and the mentally disabled. Animal tests Medical research using animals has extended the lives of many people around the whole world. Several animals as I have stated above are used as disease models in medical research for testing treatments and surgical procedures. The models of disease animal that have been used in medical research have resulted in several treatments to fight health disorders that affect various individuals such as asthma and diabetes and without the using animals in medical research, such medications and treatments would have proven a failure (Prasad, Cole & Haase 159). Polio Jonas Salk in 1940s used Rhesus monkey cross-contamination studies to create a vaccine against the strains of polio in cell culture of green monkey kidney cells. This vaccine was publicized and reduced the incidence of polio over years (Chen, Fei, et al. 263). Treating asthma Steers and guinea pigs are some of the animals, which are involved in various researches to treat asthma. It has been proved that adrenal glands of steers produce epinephrine, which is a neurotransmitter, used to treat of asthma. ACTH, which is found in the pituitary gland of steers, is used in medications to relieve the symptoms of asthma. Another asthma model in guinea pigs has been developed for the purposes of human asthma research. When guinea pigs are treated with 2,4-toluene diisocyanate (TDI) for about ten weeks, they suffer from labored breathing which is a symptom associated with bronchiole asthma in humans. In future further researches using asthma-induced guinea pigs may lead to discovery of new treatments and cures to conquer the asthma disease (Flegr & Jaroslav 128). Many individuals are subjected to daily injection of insulin to control type 1diabetes. This disease of diabetes can genetically be transmitted from one generation to the other .My grandmother and grandfather also has diabetes. Various research articles about diabetes are being performed on diabetes-prone mice. Young mice are injected with glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) which is a chemical that prevents diabetes from developing in it by inactivating the immune system cells that usually attack the pancreas. However researchers have not yet studied how GAD induces tolerance against diabetes in humans. A research conducted on the mice could be a good step in research of diabetes, probably making ideal measures for the avoidance of diabetes in the coming generation. Finding a complete cure for diabetes has been of great concern. Nevertheless, diabetes is still incurable, because medications usually taken by diabetics just control the disease. Research performed on cattle has yielded medications that can control diabetes. Researchers have actually found that insulin produced by the pancreas of cattle especially the dog keeps diabetics much alive. Someday sometime a cure for diabetes might be unveiled through the use of animals used in research (Flegr & Jaroslav 131). Pros for animal Testing 1. Animal testing has majorly contributed to many treatments and live-curing all over the world e.g. discovery of insulin is critical to saving the lives of diabetics. The polio vaccine has greatly reduced the global occurrence of the disease. This has also contributed to majorly in understanding and treating conditions such as brain injury, breast cancer, childhood leukemia, malaria, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, TB, and many others, and was instrumental in the development of pacemakers, anesthetics and cardiac valve substitutes (Flegr & Jaroslav 133). 2. There is no adequate alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system since they are extremely complex. For example, central nervous system, blood circulatory system, endocrine system, as well as immune system. 3. Animals are appropriate research subjects because they are similar to human beings in many ways. Chimpanzees share almost 99% of their DNA with humans, and mice are 98% genetically similar to humans. Animals and humans are so biologically similar and hence vulnerable to similar conditions and illnesses, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes (McGrath, J. C., et al. 1576). 4. Where considerations on ethics tend to prevent the use of human subjects, animals must be used. When testing medicines for potential toxicity or experiments involving genetic manipulation, it would be unacceptable to impose on human subjects as this could endanger the lives of the humans. 5. The animals themselves also benefit from the results of animal testing vaccines against diseases like rabies, feline leukemia, distemper, infectious hepatitis virus, anthrax, tetanus, and canine parvovirus. Endangered species have been saved from extinction like the black-footed ferret and the California condor. 6. Animal study is regulated in line with set policies to protect animals from mistreatment. The federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) usually regulates animal research since 1966 in addition to local and state laws and guidelines. 7. Animals frequently make far better research subjects than human beings since they have shorter life cycles. Laboratory mice live for example only 2-3 years. Mice and rats are well suited to long-term cancer research, partly because of their short lifespan (Prasad, Cole & Haase 171). 8. Thalidomide disaster showed the need for more animal testing since if it had been properly tested on a pregnant animal, its potential to cause severe birth defects would have been discovered before the drug was legalized for human use. Testing on animals proved that the drug tends to induce birth defects in mice, marmosets, rats, baboons, hamsters, and the New Zealand white rabbit (McGrath, J. C., et al. 1574). Cons of animal Testing 1. Animal testing is cruel and inhumane as animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to force feeding, forced inhalation, deprived of food and water, physically restraint, inflicted to burns and other wounds to study the healing process, killed by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means 2. Alternative testing methods have now emerged that can replace the need for animals. Computing models such as virtual reconstructions in human molecular structures can envisage toxic substances without conducting invasive experiments on animals. 3. Human beings and animals are very different and therefore can make poor test subjects. The anatomic, metabolic, and cellular differences between animals and people make animals poor models for human beings. Meaning drugs that pass animal tests cannot necessarily be safe. 4. Researchers may be misled by ignoring potential cures and treatments from animal tests. Some chemicals that are detrimental to animals have proven to be valuable when used by humans. E.g. Aspirin is dangerous for some animal species but useful to humans. 5.  Using animal tests is more expensive than deploying alternative methods and usually waste government resources. 6. Most experiments involving animals are flawed, and this wastes the lives of the animal subjects. Majority of animals used in various biomedical research are usually killed during or after the experiments, many suffer during these studies, and hence the lives and wellbeing of the animals are routinely sacrificed for poor research. 7. Religious traditions stresses to us to be merciful to animals, so we should not make them suffer by experimenting on them. The Hindu doctrine of ahimsa also teaches the principle of not doing harm to other living beings (Chen, Fei, et al. 266). Cons for using human beings in research 1. Using embryonic stem cells destroys blastocyts formed from laboratory-fertilized human eggs and since life according to majority begins at conception, hence destroying it is considered immoral and inacceptable. 2. Can lead to massive deaths. For example, In 1957, atmospheric nuclear explosions were experienced in Nevada, which released enough radiation to have caused from eleven thousand to two hundred and twelve thousand excess thyroid cancer cases among U.S. citizens who were exposed to the fallout from the explosions leading to massive deaths. 3. Human surgery is painful and many individuals consider it a torture and tormenting especially when it is performed without anaestethia. 4. It is considered unethical, unprofessional, and illegally and non-consensual. This is because they are often performed illegally, usually without the knowledge, consent, or even informed consent of the test subjects (Pound, Pandora & Michael B. Bracken 192). Conclusion Long time individuals suffering from asthma have come to appreciate and accept the need for animal research in laboratories. Recent studies done with laboratory animals have recorded the occurrence of cardiac arrhythmia and sudden death when given concurrently. Since animals were used in testing the safety of the above medications, researches have given humans the right doses without having the heart irregularities and failures as were witnessed in the laboratories. This combined with many other medications have helped many individuals to lead normal, everyday lives, without actually being confined inside or to a bed in the hospital (Flegr & Jaroslav 133). Animal research has increasingly become a very crucial part of life today. Without this laboratory testing of drugs and new technologies on animals, people will not be sure of product protection, and some diseases may be incurable since majority fear and ignore the product. Without such advances many individuals would have been forced to live a life that is much protected. Animal research has generally played an important role in keeping various families healthy (Prasad, Cole & Haase 156). Works cited Chen, Fei, et al. "An essential role for TH2-type responses in limiting acute tissue damage during experimental helminth infection." Nature medicine 18.2.2012: 260-266. Dyro, Joseph F. Clinical Engineering Handbook. Amsterdam [u.a.: Elsevier/Acad. Press, 2004. Print. Flegr, Jaroslav. "Influence of latent Toxoplasma infection on human personality, physiology and morphology: pros and cons of the Toxoplasmahuman model in studying the manipulation hypothesis." The Journal of experimental biology 216.1. 2013: 127-133. McGrath, J. C., et al. "Guidelines for reporting experiments involving animals: the ARRIVE guidelines." British journal of pharmacology 160.7.2010: 1573-1576. Pound, Pandora & Michael B. Bracken. "Is animal research sufficiently evidence based to be a cornerstone of biomedical research?." BMJ 348.2014. Prasad, K. N., Cole W. C., & Haase. G.M. "Radiation protection in humans: extending the concept of as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) from dose to biological damage." Radiation protection 77.914. 2014. Read More