Name:Ali Ebraheemi

English II

12-15-2017

Should Animals Be Used for Scientific or Commercial Testing?

An estimated 26 million animals are used every year in the United States for scientific

and commercial testing. Research on living animals has been practiced since at least 500 BC.

Animals are used to develop medical treatments, determine the toxicity of medications, check the

safety of products destined for human use, and other biomedical, commercial, and healthcare

uses. Animals should be Used for Scientific or Commercial Testing because animals are

appropriate research subjects because they are similar to human beings in many ways, animal

testing has enabled the development of many life-saving treatments for both humans and

animals, and animals must be used in cases when ethical considerations prevent the use of human

subjects.

One of the reason animals used in medical research because they have a high DNA

similarity to humans. Animals have a shorter life cycle than humans and as a result, they can be

studied throughout their whole lifespan or across several generations. In addition, scientists can

easily control the environment around animals (diet, temperature, lighting), which would be

difficult to do with humans. In the article “Why Are Animals Necessary in Biomedical

Research?” it states “In fact, chimpanzees share more than 99% of DNA with humans and mice

share more than 98% DNA with humans, therefore, animals are susceptible to many of the same

health problems as humans.”Some animals and humans have almost the same DNA meaning that

we should consider the animals as humans during the medical researches. Animals and humans
get affected by the same diseases and problems so it's ethically and logically correct to test on the

animals since they have a shorter lifespan. Animal testing has enabled the development of many

life-saving treatments for both humans and animals.

One of the main reason why we have cures and vaccines is from animal testing. Some

major Medical contribution animal testing have lead to is for example Antibiotics, insulin,

vaccines for polio and cervical cancer, organ transplantation, HIV treatments, heart-bypass

surgery. Nearly every major medical breakthrough in the last 100 years has been achieved by

research with animals. In the article "Animal Research: How It Benefits Both Humans and

Animals" it states “Without animal research, millions of dogs, cats, birds, and farm animals

would be dead from more than 200 diseases, including anthrax, distemper, rabies, feline

leukemia, and canine parvovirus, according to Americans for Medical Progress (AMP), a

nonprofit group that supports the responsible and humane use of animals in biomedical

research”. Animal research not only benefits us, humans, it benefits the animals themselves as

well. Today, those diseases are largely preventable, thanks to vaccines and treatments developed

in animal research. Animal medical research is beneficial for both us and the animals and proves

that it's ethically correct to sacrifice some to save millions.

Medical facilities choose to test on animals because they don’t want to put the human's

lives in danger. Medical progress is based on research. Because it is essential that the results of

laboratory experiments be applied to human beings to further scientific knowledge and to help

suffering humanity, the World Medical Association has prepared the following recommendations

as a guide to every physician in biomedical research involving human subjects. In the article

“Office of History, National Institutes of Health - Laws Related to the Protection of Human

Subjects” it states “The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki states that human
trials should be preceded by tests on animals.”The World Medical Association is saying we don’t

need humans sacrifices if we can use animals for medical advances. Proving that animal testing

should not be illegal because it eliminates the option killing our own kind to find a cure and a

vaccination.

Some might say animals should not be used for scientific or commercial testing because

it's cruel and inhumane. They believe that animals used in experiments are commonly subjected

to force-feeding, forced inhalation, food and water deprivation, prolonged periods of physical

restraint, and get abused to find healing medicine. But according to “Guest Post on Animal

Research: Animal Research Is an Ethical and Vital Tool to Fight Disease” it states “Aside from

the legal instruments to protect animals in research, there is also a drive from researchers to

improve laboratory animal welfare. At the heart of this is the 3Rs – Refinement, Replacement,

and Reduction of animal research.”Refinement means improving the methods used in research in

order to minimize pain and distress for the animals. Replacement is aimed at using non-animal

methods wherever possible. Reduction finds ways of using fewer animals to gain the same

amount of information. Animal facilities are always aiming to find the best environment and

treatment for the animals that are being tested.

Animal testing has been practiced for a long time and it made a huge progress in Medical

research. Without animal testing, humanity would have ended a long time ago because we

would’ve had no way to find the cures to our sickness and the vaccines to our diseases. If we

were to end it now what will be its replacement for finding the cures and vaccines for future

diseases and sicknesses. So if you want to keep the method of saving humanity make sure you

donate to the animal facilities because animal testing is expensive. Animals should be used for
scientific or commercial testing because that's our human DNA replacement to find medical

research.

“Should we experiment on animals?” by Colin Blakemore, Oct 28, 2008:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3353960/Should-we-experiment-on-

animals-Yes.html)

Colin Blakemore uses medical research advances that animal testing helped in.

Blakemore includes some diseases that animal testing have cured for example Antibiotics,

insulin, vaccines for polio and cervical cancer, organ transplantation, HIV treatments, heart-

bypass surgery.Then he goes on explaining that animal testing is expensive and time

conserving.This article supports my argument because it talks about the benefits that animal

testing had lead to.This article also helps in providing facts on how animal testing have saved

humanity.In the article it states “No one chooses to use animals where there is no need. It gives

no one any pleasure, and it is time consuming, expensive and - quite rightly - subject to layers of

regulation. Yet it is still the best way of finding out what causes disease, and of knowing whether

new treatments will be safe and effective.”This evidence basically is basically saying that animal

testing is hard for the people to do because they know it's morally wrong yet they still do it.

“Guest Post on Animal Research: Animal Research Is an Ethical and Vital Tool to Fight

Disease” by Tom holder, Jan 14, 2013: http://blogs.harvard.edu/billofhealth/2013/01/14/guest-

post-on-animal-research-animal-research-is-an-ethical-and-vital-tool-to-fight-disease/)
 Tom holder basically talks about the regulations,benefits,and federal laws on animal

testing in the United states.Tom proves that the animals are not abused when used for medical

research.Then he goes on explaining the 3rs that animal laboratory focus on.The 3rs are

Refinement, Replacement and Reduction of animal research.Refinement means improving the

methods used in research in order to minimize pain and distress for the animals. Replacement is

aimed at using non-animal methods wherever possible.Reduction finds ways of using fewer

animals to gain the same amount of information.This article supports my argument because it

shows that animals are aimed to be treated as humanely as possible during the use of medical

research.In the article it states “In a country where we eat 9 billion chickens and 150 million

cattle, pigs and sheep every year, 25 million (approx.) animals (96% is estimated to be mice, rats,

birds and fish) seems a small price to pay for medical progress.”This evidence basically is saying

we live in a world where we kill billion of animals so that we can survive.The number of animals

we kill as a food resource is dramatically huge compared to the number of animals used in

medical research purposes.

“Office of History, National Institutes of Health - Laws Related to the Protection of Human

Subjects” by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Oct 15,

2013:https://history.nih.gov/about/timelines/helsinki.html)

This article is basically about the World Medical Assembly introducing the principles of

medical research.It talks about how medical progress is based on research.Because it is essential

that the results of laboratory experiments be applied to human beings to further scientific

knowledge and to help suffering humanity, the World Medical Association has prepared the

following recommendations as a guide to every physician in biomedical research involving

human subjects.This article supports my argument because it provides a high classified evidence

from the World Medical Association.It shows that the Medical elites agree with the idea that

Medical research should be on animals and not on humans.In the article it states “The World

Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki states that human trials should be preceded by tests

on animals.”This evidence is basically that the World Medical Association is saying we don’t

need humans sacrifices if we can use animals for medical advances.This proves that animal

testing should not be illegalized because it eliminates the option killing our own kind to find a

cure and a vaccination.

"Animal Research: How It Benefits Both Humans and Animals," by California Veterinary

Medical Association, Oct 15, 2013: https://cvma.net/publications/press-

releases/%E2%80%A2animal-research-how-it-benefits-both-humans-and-animals/)

article is basically about how animals are the heros of medical progress and the world.Its

talks about how Nearly every major medical breakthrough in the last 100 years has been

achieved by research with animals.This article supports my argument because it's shows how

animal medical research is beneficial for both us and the animals.It shows how it's ethically

correct to sacrifice some to save millions.In the article it states “Without animal research,

millions of dogs, cats, birds, and farm animals would be dead from more than 200 diseases,

including anthrax, distemper, rabies, feline leukemia, and canine parvovirus, according to

Americans for Medical Progress (AMP), a nonprofit group that supports the responsible and

humane use of animals in biomedical research”.This evidence is basically saying that animal

research not only benefit us humans it benefits the animals themselves aswell.It also shows how
Today, those diseases are largely preventable, thanks to vaccines and treatments developed in

animal research.

“Why Are Animals Necessary in Biomedical Research?” by California Biomedical Research

Association, Oct 15,2013:

http://www.ca-biomed.org/csbr/pdf/fs-whynecessary.pdf)

This article is basically talks about how similar animals and humans.That one of the

reason animals used in medical research because they have a high dna similarity.How animals

have a shorter life cycle than humans and as a result, they can be studied throughout their whole

life span or across several generations. In addition, scientists can easily control the environment

around animals (diet, temperature, lighting), which would be difficult to do with humans.In the

article it states “Animals are biologically similar to humans.This article supports my argument

because it shows how since humans and animals are similar we should test on the animals to

save the human lives.In the article it states “In fact, chimpanzees share more that 99% of DNA

with humans and mice share more than 98% DNA with humans, therefore, animals are

susceptible to many of the same health problems as humans.”This evidence is basically saying

that some animals and humans have almost the same DNA meaning that we should consider the

animals as humans during the medical researches.So if the animals and humans get affected by

the same diseases and problems wouldn’t it not be ethically and logically correct to test on the

animals since they have a shorter life span?