Animals should never be used to test new drugs or medical treatments essay sample

Animal testing is a huge concern to scientists and advocates of animals. The ethics behind the problem is rather ambiguous as every party considers their views rightful to some extent. Animals have been used for centuries in the research as humans tried to grasp basic medicine and biology. Today subjects are in a better state than anytime earlier, particularly due to animal protection laws and restrictions to medical research. But still, we continue using animals to prove the safety of drugs and cosmetics. Taking into account existing alternatives, advocates of animals demand to end up the painful practice. Though, scientists are not ready to give it up yet.

When we come across the label “clinically tested”, it almost always means that lab animals have been exposed to chemicals in some way. But they are not the only subjects used by scientists. Cell culture, computer modeling, and human volunteers help to check compounds on causing any real or possible effects on the human organism. Scientists use these methods whenever it is possible to replace animal testing. In other cases, the aim is to reduce the number of lab animals. Scientists cooperate as much as possible and share their research to avoid spending resources to get the same results. Another advantage of present-day labs is that animals are taken care of. Researchers try to minimize the stress and create comfortable conditions for little animal subjects to underline their humane treatment.

Though testing on animals seems obsolete, we cannot abandon it yet. This method, as well as its alternatives, does not guarantee a 100 percent safety of the compounds under examination. For this reason, we have to combine all methods of research to assure the safety of consumers.