Animals have been used repeatedly throughout the history of biomedical research. Early Greek physician-scientists, such as Aristotle, and Erasistratus, performed experiments on living animals. Animals are used to develop medical treatments, determine the toxicity of medications, check the safety of products designed for human use, and other biomedical, commercial, and health care uses. In recent years, the practice of using animals for biomedical research has come under severe criticism by animal protection and animal rights groups. Laws have been passed in several countries to make the practice more ‘humane’. Debates on the ethics of animal testing have raged since the seventeenth century. Many people don’t find animal testing ethical because animals are very different from humans anatomically, and that hence results from animals cannot be applied to humans.Those in favor of animal testing argue that experiments on animals are necessary to advance medical and biological knowledge. Let’s take a closer look at why animal testing is necessary for us.
There have been many incidents in the 90s caused by not testing drugs on animals before usage.These incidents and others illustrate the harm to humans from the use of substances that have not been first tested on animals and underline the importance of animal experimentation to avert or prevent human tragedy. The practice of using animals in biomedical research has led to significant advances in the treatment of various diseases. There are no better alternatives to animal testing, because alternatives do not do a sufficient job of making sure products and medicines are safe. Not testing products at all will make it impossible to develop new products. Testing on humans is also not even testing. There are other things to do, but animal testing is the best way to get new products to markets. There are other pros to animal testing like, animals often make better research subjects than human beings because of their shorter life cycles. Also animal researchers treat animals humanely, both for the animals sake and to ensure reliable test results.
To come to a conclusion, in the sake of improving medicine and technology animals should be used on drug testing for the best results on humans. These tests should be made in a suitable environment for the animal that is being tested. Animals like rabbits, hamsters or rats should be treated humanely with little to no harm possible.