In addition, the practice of testing cosmetics and other personal items on animals was accepted practice for many years. For example, countless rabbits were blinded to test the safety of mascaras and eye products (Carbone 24) before animal rights activists spoke up and asked the haunting question, "How many rabbits does Revlon blind for the sake of beauty?'" (Carbone 24). This use of animals for vanity seems unusually cruel and needless, and it seems there must be some other way to test new ideas, drugs, and treatments without wasting the lives of innocent animals.
Many scientists and health care professionals argue that medical research with animals is absolutely necessary to cure disease and make human life better and healthier. They maintain that animal research is absolutely necessary because in the end it saves human lives. Clearly, researchers have learned much from animal research, and have made great strides in science and medicine because of this research. DeGrazia notes "the advancement of basic biological knowledge -- proponents cite progress in the areas of Alzheimer's disease, AIDS, basic genetics, cancer, cardiovascular disease, haemophilia, malaria, organ transplantation, treatment of spinal cord injuries, and countless others" (DeGrazia 103). How many countless humans would have died from these diseases and afflictions if serious animal research had not been done?
This is one of the thorniest issues of the animal rights movement. When does the end justify the means? Often, as in the case of these serious diseases, it seems the end does justify the means. Numerous lives have been saved or made better because of the sacrifice of animals. However, the question remains. How much of this research could have been accomplished in some other way, without harming animals? As it has been shown, there are often other ways to accomplish even the most demanding research, and simply using animals may be the accepted practice because it has been done for so long, but it may not be the only way to accomplish complicated and necessary research.
Even those...
Our survival, as well as the ecosystem of the planet, depends on our stewardship and that stewardship is the price of our research. One must finally wrestle with the issue of survival on a personal level in order to understand this issue. Coming down from the macrocosmic view, if it were a matter of your child having leukemia and suffering for years before dying or a laboratory rat suffering
Pycroft insists that because the human body is made up of "…trillions of cells, each containing billions of molecules, many of which are composed of tens of thousands of atoms" -- with these microscopic "machines" able to communicate with each other and function in a "stunningly interdependent environment" -- researchers in biomedical environments need tools that can at least "mimic" human biology (Pycroft, 2011, p. 1). And animals are
Animal research is a necessity today, and has afforded us the opportunity to create lifesaving drugs and vaccines, new surgical procedures and improved diagnosis of disease. Despite the bad press animal activists have given, institutions are given guidelines that guarantee the safe and ethical treatment of research animals. Most scientists agree that continued animal testing is essential to develop new vaccines and medicines, and that computer and mathematical models are
Animal Research Milgram and the Ethics of Psychological Experimentation Milgram's experiment, while it may be viewed as controversial in a modern context, was ultimately ethical. This is because the American Psychological Association (or "APA") provides five general principles in its ethical code of conduct, the document scientists are meant to use to govern ethical decision-making in experiment design and implementation. Milgram's work does not defy any of these principles, which are given
animal research and experimentation in psychology? When, if ever, do you think that animal research is justified? Do you approve of current regulations concerning it? Why or why not? One of the most horrifying images in psychology is that of a monkey, clinging to a false 'mother' monkey that looks like a piece of carpet. The monkey has been deprived of maternal companionship to compare its psychological reactions to those
By using animals in research, and through animal research science learns how certain chemicals "interact with living systems"; this knowledge can be "translated into protection of humans, animals, and the environment from toxic levels of natural -- as well as man-made -- exposures (SOT, 6). Legal and professional accountability In Canada there are Research Ethics Boards (REBs) that have the power to authorize or reject funding for experiments with animals; when
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