A More Responsible Approach to Animal Research, Testing,...

A More Responsible Approach to Animal Research, Testing,...

It's Time for a More Responsible Approach to Animal Research, Testing, and Experimentation



The debate about using animals for medical testing has been raging for years. The struggle always seems to be between extremist animal rights activists who believe that animals should never be used for research, and scientists who believe that any use of animals is acceptable. There are a growing number who argue that there must be a reasonable middle ground. I contend that there must be a significant decrease in the number of animals used by humans to further human goals. I will give a historical account of animal use, provide some statistics about animal use, present some arguments against the use of animals and present Singer's view ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...These animals include in decreasing order of frequency: mice, rats, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, "farm animals" such as pigs and sheep, dogs, primates and cats. The most common of these, rats and mice, are not protected under the AWA and no accurate figures are kept on the exact number of these animals that are used regardless of the fact that they make up 85–90% of all animals used (hsus).



The most common arguments against animal use question the morality, necessity, and scientific validity of these studies, that is, whether we have the right to perform such tests, whether we need such tests, and whether these tests provide us with any useful information. The moral aspects of the animal use debate involve the view of animals as sentient beings. It is argued that we have a responsibility toward animals and a moral obligation to not cause them pain or distress (jhsph). Singer argues that "...experimenters often seek to justify experimenting on animals by claiming that the experiments lead us to discoveries about humans; if this is so, the experimenter must agree that human and non–human animals are similar in crucial respects (p. 65)." He challenges his opponents to the hypothetical question "would [they] be prepared to perform their experiments

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