The question of the permissibility of animal experiments is a complex moral problem in the field of the relationship between humanity and animals, which humanity is trying and cannot yet solve. On the one hand, this is inhumane to them as they cannot give their consent or stop the experiments. On the other hand, many sciences, including surgery, pharmaceuticals, cosmetology, and others, will practically stop their development if experiments on animals are no longer carried out.
In recent years, pandemics have become a tremendous threat to humankind as they spread quickly, impacting millions of people. As a result, harsh measures needed to be taken to manage infections. In the absence of a disease model, medical companies proceed with clinical trials based on the reactions of the animals to create vaccines (Deb et al., 2020). A medicine that has not protested on animals can cause unforeseen circumstances in a person, up, including death. Thus, the main advantage of animal testing is that it is an important scientific experiment for ensuring the safety of vaccinations and medicines.
Another pro of animal testing is that there is no substitute for testing on a living body. Experimenting on human genetics poses several legal and ethical hurdles for medical and biological researchers, as well as difficulties in developing experimental techniques that use human test subjects. Animal testing in medical research entails studies on how biological systems operate, as well as the nature and mode of disease transmission in live beings. The outcomes of these investigations contribute to advances in scientific knowledge of human illness and provide the potential for the development and testing of remedies.
In addition, animal research is strictly controlled, and there are regulations to prevent animals from being abused. Besides some local governmental regulations, animal research is also controlled by the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA). According to Meigs et al. (2018), in the United States, the total number of animals utilized for research covered by the AWA increased by 6.9%. However, global animal testing rates have appeared to be steady in recent years (Meigs et al., 2018). Each research facility must establish an AWA to review all applications to use animals in research.
However, opponents of animal research argue that tests do not predict a human organism’s exact response to certain chemicals. Moreover, vaccines and other medications can be tested on human volunteers. The process of tracking the viruses and their development is faster, and the results are more convenient if they are held on human organisms.
Furthermore, animal testing is considered to be unethical and cruel. For example, animal testing in the cosmetics industry mainly entails using animal subjects to evaluate new cosmetics products and chemicals. The practice entails applying or forcing ingestion or injection of these substances into various parts of test animals to investigate their toxicity, eye and skin irritation, ultraviolet light-induced toxicity, and potential for causing unwanted gene mutations (Kabene & Baadel, 2019). Hence, animal testing in cosmetics research and production is unethical because the results do not benefit human health and the practice results in the torture and killing of animals.
Another con of animal testing is that there are alternative methods for testing medical cures and treatments as well as medications. For instance, by the use of in vitro and in silico approaches, the number of animals used per publication has been steadily decreasing over the last 10-20 years, reducing the need for large animal numbers (Meigs et al., 2018). Therefore, vaccines and medication, as well as cosmetics tests, are more often being held in laboratories without utilizing animals.
Animals are often the subject of scientific research because they are the subject of experiments to test new methods of treatment and medicine, cosmetics, and chemicals. Modern scientists and researchers argue that animal testing is a necessary source of knowledge for science and medicine. From one another perspective, animal experiments occupy a very small segment of the field of medicine, which has achieved significant success in different eras without using experimental data. However, although animal testing is considered unethical, it has improved medications and cosmetics innovation.
References
Deb, B., Shah, H., & Goel, S. (2020). Current global vaccine and drug efforts against COVID-19: Pros and cons of bypassing animal trials. Journal of Biosciences, 45. Web.
Kabene, S. & Baadel, S. (2019). Bioethics: A look at animal testing in medicine and cosmetics in the UK. Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, 12(15). Web.
Meigs, L., Smirnova, L., Rovida, C., Leist, M., & Hartung, T. (2018). Animal testing and its alternatives – the most important omics is economics. Alternatives to Animal Experimentation, 35(3), 275-305. Web.