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Animal Testing: The Ethics Of Animal Experimentation

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In the history of mankind, human used numerous animals to sustain their life and to keep their species. They used animals to hunt other animals or they use them to protect themselves. Sometimes they eat the hunting animals if they fail to hunt other animal. They also used animals to acquire knowledge. They learned biology through dissect animals and they also learned pharmacology through test medicines on animals. However present day, people start to ask question about ethics of animal testing. Some groups of people say that animal testing has no problem with ethics. Most of people in this groups does not want to think of animals as on the same level of themselves. On the other hand, other groups of people think that because animals cannot …show more content…

Animal experimentation is use of animals for scientific research and test medicines or cosmetics. Not only experimentations happen in research laboratory is called animal experimentation, dissection of frogs or mice in high school science class is also part of animal experimentation. Every year in laboratories of the United States, more than a million animals are died because of scientific lesson or medical training and also chemical, food and cosmetics testing (3). At this point, one of the most important question is that where people get all the experimental animals. Most of animals in experimentation are bred in the laboratory or in other companies. Others can be captured from the jungle or the forest. There are even black market for these animals, and this is the one of the most horrible way to get animals because sometimes the black market sellers kidnap people’s pet to sell. With these animals, scientists can do miscellaneous experimentation. Eye irritancy, acute toxicity, repeated dose toxicity, skin corrosivity and skin sensitization can be the some examples of the test that researchers do to animals (PETA2). Rabbits are the frequente victims of eye irritancy test. Eye …show more content…

To exemplify this, numerous researchers believe that “animals help in the fight against cancer” (2), but since President Richard Nixon signed the Conquest of cancer Act in 1971, the “War on Cancer” in the United States has become a series of losing battles. Through taxes, donations, and private funding, americans have spent almost $200 billion on cancer research since 1971. However, more than 500,000 Americans die of cancer every year, a 73 percent increase in the death rate since the “war” began (2). Researchers also believe that “Animals are here for humans to use. If people have to sacrifice 1.000 or 1000,000 animals in the hope of benefiting on child, it is worth it” (2). Unlike this, if experimenting on one intellectually-disabled person could benefit 1,000 children, is it worth it? Of course not! Ethics dictate that the value of each life in and of itself cannot be superseded by its potential value to anyone else (2). Citizens need to become more frank about the cruelty and incompetence of the research system and government have to make sure that its tax dollars and generous donations not be used to fund experiments on

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