Question

Module 11 Discussion: Animal Testing

This module we learned about animals. Animals are very important in our day-to-day lives. Furthermore, you are an animal! One way animals influence our day-to-day lives is as subjects for animal testing.

This module’s discussion board will have 3 parts.

1.) What are the good parts of animal testing?

2.) What are the bad parts of animal testing?

3.)What are your overall feelings concerning animals testing? Is it something we as a society should engage in?

Keep in mind that animal testing goes beyond the cosmetics industry. Animal testing is also used in medical research and biological research in general. Therefore, please try to do a bit of internet research to get exposure to animal testing in general.

Required: one initial post with a minimum of 250 words. You do not need to respond to other students unless you want to. You'll only be graded on the initial post. However, spelling and grammar count for everything that you do. Please do not submit your response by uploading a file. These files will not be accepted. All responses must be entries into the discussion post.

Answer 1

As research in biology, specially medical biology, expanded , the need for performing tests on animals was felt before trying anything on humans. Animals such as rats and guinea pigs are chosen for most of the research based testings. Two reasons are the key to the choice of these animals.

Firstly, rats and mice share many physiological and genetic similarities with humans , and secondly, they breed very fast ,so the result of any experimentation is obtained quickly.

Not only this , we also produce genetically altered animals for our benefit. High milk yielding animals, better poultry breeds and animals with more nutrition value in their flesh have been engineered for the benefit of mankind. All this is good as the animals concerned are not damaged or hurt in any way. What is a matter of debate is the use of animals to test for products which might be harmful for them . It is here that Bioethics takes over. We can console ourselves by saying that all this is for the benefit of mankind and that animals do not know relationships among themselves ,so even if an animal dies, it does not hurt anyone. But again, some people argue that animals have as much right to live as any of us.

Animal ethics actually is term used to describe human-animal relationship and how animals are to be treated.

The good thing is that the animals on which the tests are performed are not pets. We do not perform any tests on dogs or cats because they are more sensitive and show emotions and respond to love and affection.

Animals on which tests are performed in the lab do not show the above mentione qualities and we hope that they do not feel anything. Some people argue that if this is so, then we are bigger culprits as we are using unsuspecting, mute creatures for our benefit. The argument is endless and there is no proper consensus on this. There are several grey areas which ,most probably , will never be solved.

My feelings are also mixed. For research work we do need live beings. Tests have to be performed on them to establish the safety of any drug before it is marketed. Research on animals has helped to create a boundless databank and has helped in our understanding of the intricacies of life. It has helped to find cures for some deadly diseases which were previuosly considered incurable. The basic understanding of life and how it functions has been made possible due to research work on animals .

If we weigh the good and the bad of animal testing, I think the good will weigh heavier. After all it has helped to save so many human lives and also helped to improve the standards of life and availability of food .

Thus, although we can never come to a definite agreement on this topic , I think if the end is good then the means does not matter !

Also, those who cry foul on the topic of animal testing should remember that it is not the same as torturing animals. It is a process in which some experiments or trials are done on animals to help make the quality of life better for so many needy people.

However , there is one area where animal testing is not required and should not be done and that is testing for cosmetics. Many countries have banned such testings except in some highly sensitive cases.

Although some animals like dogs, rats , monkeys, pigs etc is also done but these are very few . More than 90% of the testings are done on rats and mice.