Animal testing is a widely used practice around the world. Anywhere between 50 and 100 million vertebrae animals are estimated to be used, though it is likely that the real number is higher than this. In Europe in 2005, 12.1 million vertebrates were tested on. More than 50% of these were mice, with about another 20% rats.
Major medical institutions, such as the Royal Society (UK) and the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (US), strongly support the use of animal testing. The Royal Society argues that almost all medical achievement of the 20th century relied on animal testing in some way or another. The ILAR argue that sophisticated computers cannot re-create the actions of cells and molecules, so living organisms therefore must be used.
On the opposite side, animal rights groups and some animal welfare groups claim that animal treatment is cruel, not regulated well enough, an outdated practice, that the tests do not accurately reflect human reactions and that the costs and negatives outweigh the benefits.
For example they say:
"As experimenting on animals is immoral we should stop using animals for experiments. But apart from it being morally wrong practically we will never know how much we will be able to advance without animal experimentation if we never stop experimenting on animals. Animal research has been the historical gold standard, and in the case of some chemical screening tests, was for many years, by many western states, required by law before a compound could be released on sale. Science and technology has moved faster than research protocols however, and so there is no longer a need for animals to be experimented on ... the differences between us and other vertebrates are a matter of degree rather than kind.... They recoil from pain, appear to express fear of a tormentor, and appear to take pleasure in activities; a point clear to anyone who has observed the behaviour of a pet dog on hearing the word “walk"."
There are lots of pros and cons and many ways to look at this issue. What do you think?
IMPORTANT: Read the idebate links below for more pros and cons.
Read More
idebate.org/debatabase/debates/science-technology/house-would-ban-animal-testing idebate.org/debatabase/debates/health/house-would-go-vegetarian www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CFkQFjAB&a.. insaindia.org/pdf/sc_pol/samir.pdf