Nowadays animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines and to test the safety of other products. Some people argue that these experiments should be banned because it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer, while others are in favor of them because of their benefits to humanity. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
The practice of using animals in medical experiments is a controversial issue. While some people believe that such use of animals is justified, I disagree.
Firstly, it is a morally questionable practice as it involves inflicting emotional and physical pain on non-consenting animals. Many laboratory animals are injected with diseases in order to test the efficacy of drugs against them, causing unnecessary pain to the animals. Similarly, the animals tend to be kept in confined artificial spaces, often alone, which is a significant cause of emotional distress.
Secondly, animal testing of drugs is an unreliable practice. A vast majority of the medicines that work on animals fail to have the same effects on humans. For instance, in the last decade alone, there have been multiple cancer treatments that have been performed on mice but not a single of them has made it to the market. Considering how costly animal testing can be, this lack of reliability should be unacceptable.
Supporters of animal testing may claim that it is the only way we have to safely test drugs before we can administer them to humans However, this is not true as there are cheaper and more reliable alternatives available. One alternative, for example, is to use sophisticated computer models that mimic human biological systems. Not only is this method cheaper than testing on animals, but is also more reliable as it is based on human and not animal models.
In conclusion, using animals for testing medical treatments is a crude practice that is justified neither on moral nor practical grounds.