Ethics, Merits and Demerits
Animal experiment is the use of animals, mostly in laboratories to make inferences about human behavior, such as the famous dog trained by Pavlov when he was researching conditioning. He later used conclusions from the experiments to generalize about human behavior. Animal experiments also involve the use of animals in testing medicine and other chemicals to test if they are far for human consumption. The most commonly used animal in the united state are mice, where estimates suggest that more than eight million mice are for experimented on each year. Primates are the closest relatives of a man in the animal kingdom their use to predicts the effect of drugs on the human being because use of the human experiment is outlawed in most countries (Wingfield et al., 2007).
Mice are the primary animals used in laboratories, mainly due to ease breeding and their similarities to human beings (they are mammals, and most of their body systems are similar to that of the human beings). They are relatively small, have a short gestation period and are easy to maintain and feed, making them very convenient for use in laboratories (Wingfield et al., 2007). Apes, on the other hand, are the closest relations to human beings. Archeologists suggest that human beings and apes have a common ancestry, leading to the striking similarities.
[...] Exposure of Animals to extreme conditions and leaving them to suffer for long periods with no motive is inhuman. This led to the introduction of animal euthanasia. Their death is by lethal injection or denial of essential supplies to sustain their lives. As the most-intelligent being in the planet, the human being has a moral responsibility to protect the other inhabitants of her planet, the same way that an adult has a duty to protect young children (Wingfield et al., 2007). [...]
[...] Virtually all drug testing is on animals before testing on human beings. Over the last century, malaria became resistant to drugs with alarming frequency. Such drugs would have disastrous effects if used on people before tests on animals. Using lab testing, therefore, reduces the risk of medical products having deadly of harmful side effects to human beings. Laboratory research is also instrumental in enabling human beings understand their behavior. People are guarded and are likely to lead researcher to believe they are something they are not. [...]
[...] Use of animals in research psychology, therefore, draws wrong conclusions about human behavior (Wingfield et al., 2007). Animals do not get any credit for their sacrifices for the human race. They are responsible for development and perfection of most drugs, yet they do not get the recognition. Many international laws protect animals. They include the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966, which seeks to protect animals used in the laboratories from extreme conditions such as high temperatures (Finsen et al., 1994). [...]
[...] They are relatively small, have a short gestation period and are easy to maintain and feed, making them very convenient for use in laboratories (Wingfield et al., 2007). Apes, on the other hand, are the closest relations to human beings. Archeologists suggest that human beings and apes have a common ancestry, leading to the striking similarities. Animal experiments are substitutes to human experimentation. In the medieval and renaissance periods, slaves and other people that held low positions in the society had experiments conducted on them to develop a new medicine. [...]
[...] Pioneering in the field of biology also depends on lab animals. Biological advancements, such as the famed search for a drug o stop the aging process involves careful study of animals that demonstrate the trait, such as tortoises, and trying to engineer the products through animals (Wingfield et al., 2007). However, there are those who feel that animal research is cruel and inhumane. They argue that animals in the labs suffer cruel and inhuman treatment, sometimes for no reason at all. [...]
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