Should animal be used for experimentation - Essay Example

Animals Should be Used for Experimentation Number and Number Number of Words: 502 Introduction Animals such as rats, mice, birds and frogs are often used as a subject when medical experts and scientists conduct experiments. After using these animals in experimentation, these animals are euthanized through intravenous injection with either a high dosage of sodium thiopental1, isoflurane2, or pentobarbital3. To shorten the painful death of animals used in experimentation, these two types of drugs could make the animals fall unconscious followed by a cardiac arrest.

The use of animals in laboratory experiments has its advantages and disadvantages. Although a lot of animal rights activists believe and argue that it is not justifiable nor it is ethical on the part of humans to cause harm to the animals in exchange of improving the life span of human beings, I strongly believe that the benefit of using these animals in medical research purposes significantly outweighs the socio-economic consequences as being protested by the animal rights activists. Even though the use of animals in laboratory testing can be perceived as an act of cruelty, it is undeniable that the end-result of using animals in laboratory experimentation has significantly improved the quality and efficiency of medicine in terms of searching for effective medicine in treating human illnesses and prolonging the lives of each human being.

During the past few decades, the use of these animals in medical experiments has contributed a lot in terms of enhancing the available medicine that is being used to cure a long list of diseases including diabetes and leprosy among others. By prohibiting the use of animals for medical testing purposes, it would be difficult on the part of the medical experts to learn more about how each of the available chemical- and non-chemical-based drugs could interact with the human cells, tissues, and the rest of the internal organs.

Likewise, it would be difficult on the part of the pharmaceutical companies to ensure that the drugs they are selling to the public are harmless for human consumption. Aside from the use of animals when testing the effectiveness and safety of newly developed drugs, animals can also be used in the study of human beings. Specifically the sexual interaction between male and female is necessary when it comes to the reproduction process of human beings. In line with this, frogs are often used in the study of human development because human beings are able to reproduce the same way as amphibians like frog does.

Similar to the process of human reproduction, frogs also need a sperm and egg. As soon as the frog’s egg is fertilized, the fertilized egg undergoes the process of blastulation, gastrulation and neurulation. In the case of the human beings, the fertilized egg which forms the zygote undergoes the process of cell division known as the mitosis and the meiosis. Aside from the fact that frogs are vertebrate like human beings, the similarity of human beings and amphibians like frogs in terms of its reproductive system makes frog a common subject in the study of biological laboratory experiments.