Important Chemistry Discussion Board

"Whether you have religious beliefs or not, it's plain to anyone who looks that the human species is far above other species in intelligence, ability, and morals."

By this logic, we have the right to perform hideous tests on everyone less intelligent than us - and anyone more intelligent than us has a right to perform hideous tests on us. So - if my IQ is 150, I can do as I wish with anyone below me..anyone above can do with me as they wish...Interesting.
Not only does this mean that a huge percent of the adult population is now up for grabs to be tested on, it guarantees that all babies and mentally challenged people are out of luck. Splendid.
Doubly splendid since - if you're going to perform tests to benefit humans, you will have *far* better results if the tests are actually performed on humans. (How many drugs and treatments have we created that are 'safe' on animals and end up severely injuring/killing us?)

As for ability, how is this quantified? Does this mean that super body builders who can lift a car can test on me? And I, who can lift decently heavy objects, have the right to perform tests on the elderly?
Is it the ability to fly - in which case we clearly lose...The ability to swim...again...we lose that one...the ability multiply like cancer cells? Well...cancer cells are probably better at it than us, but we are doing a bangup job nonetheless...Or is it the ability to annihilate our surroundings? In that case, well, yes, humans win that one. Beavers come in a close second, but even they aren't as talented as us.

And morals. Wow.
I don't see other animals creating nuclear bombs, holocausts, slavery, child trafficking, any trafficking, torture, genocide, wars, (the list goes on)... Let alone putting their food under lock and key or valuing money more than life. And we're the moral ones? Given our treatment of each other, let alone our treatment of those we deem 'below' us, the man-made concept of morals is the last thing in the world we should be using to justify this.

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As for is it morally right - you might say that you'd rather have a monkey tested on than your child. Okay. But if it came down to it, I'd rather have your child tested on than my child. We all have attachments - but just because if forced to make a choice, I value my child's life more than yours doesn't give me the right to do with yours as I please.

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"I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further." Mark Twain

“The victory of vivisection marks a great advance in the triumph of ruthless, non-moral utilitarianism over the old world of ethical law; a triumph in which we, as well as animals, are already the victims and of which Dachau and Hiroshima mark the more recent achievements. … I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was ‘Feed my sheep,’ not ‘Try experiments on my rats,’ or even ‘Teach my performing dogs new tricks.’” CS Lewis

Pros:

• medical research that can save peoples lives or help them lead better lives - The supporters of animal testing argue that if animal testing is eliminated, that many of the medications and procedures that we currently use today wouldn't exist and the development of future treatments would be extremely limited.
• Animal testing not only benefits humans but also helps other animals, for example the heart worm medication that was devised from research on animals has assisted many dogs.
• Other testing techniques are not advanced enough
• Minimise injury and maximise benefits
• The advantages outweigh the costs.
• Moreover, many argue that the lives of animals may be worthy of some respect, but the value we give on their lives does not count as much as the value we give to human life.
• As far as animal testing is concerned we are confronted with the moral dilemma of a choice between the welfare of humans or the welfare of animals.
• The Research Defense Society – RDS, a British organization instituted to defend animal testing, maintain that most of the complaints made against animal testing are not found to be correct and that animal testing generates valuable information about how new drugs react inside a living body.

Finding a cure and a vaccine for AIDS has become one of the most important goals of the medical research industry. The animal models for AIDS are a very important part of the research as they help in understanding the biology of immune-deficiency viruses.

The fact of the matter is that to make advances in the field of medicines, animal testing is a must. Restraining or banning the testing by animal activists will not help in any way. It is up to us and all individuals belonging to animal organizations and medical research to ensure that the same is carried out in a safe, ethical manner causing as little pain and discomfort possible to the animal. If animal testing was to be outlawed then there would be very little scope of obtaining information that would be very necessary to eliminate suffering and premature deaths in both humans and animals.

I'm not sure it's 'right' but I do agree with animal testing for medical research.

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In terms of simulating different animals using computer technology. Well, it may be probable in certain applications, but not all. For examples, if you have a drug that cures a certain disease, you can't really use a computer as a model for a living creature because the perimeters you use to create the program are based on tests that have been done on animals. In other words, they create these programs based on how animals behave in real life and so the programmers try to model real-life situations. Therefore, you would first have to test the drug on an animal first, observe what happens and then program the software based on what happened the first time with the animal - so there always has to be an animal involved in order to create a simulation. Also, a monkey for instance has thousands of different alleles for various genes and so you would have to program them all, which is impossible because of random mutation and sexual reproduction that causes shuffling of those genes. If the population of that test animal were in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, than maybe, but that's never the case.

It has been a very common practice to test a household compounds, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products on animals for a very long time. As a matter if fact, it has been estimated that nearly 20 million animals are used for testing and are killed annually. Out of these, 15 million are tested for medication and 5 million are tested for other products. Reports also indicate that about 10% of these animals are not administered with adequate pain killers.

Across the world, new products ranging from cancer drugs to soaps and shampoos are tested on the animals. There are many questions regarding the ethics of using animals for testing. Hence, several regulations have been put in place that evaluate and control the animals that are being used for testing purposes. It is believed that these regulations will ensure that research is carried out in as humane and as ethical manner as possible. However, these regulations are also under a lot of argumentation.

A survey conducted in the American Medical Association indicates that 99% of all active physicians in the United States believe that animal research has given rise to medical advancements. In fact, about 97% of the physicians also supported the continuous use if animals for clinical and basic research. The main reason behind this is the fact that scientists have found that there is very little or difference between the lab animals and humans. A British organization by the name Research Defense Society (RDS) that was instituted to defend animal testing indicates that most of the complaints made against animal testing are not correct and also that animal testing generates invaluable information about how new drugs would react inside a living body. The tests have to be continued in order to detect information of any major health problems that can be caused by the drugs like liver damage, enhanced blood pressure, nerve damage and damages to the fetus

Animal Testing Pros

When every member in our family is hale and hearty, it is very difficult to understand as to why the innocent animals are used for testing purposes that usually ends up killing them. But it usually starts to make more sense when someone in the family or you yourself starts suffering from a life threatening disease. It is a very symbiotic relationship that is also a very integral part of medical research. Testing on animals has helped develop vaccines for many life threatening diseases like Herpes Simplex, Hepatitis B, Polio, rabies, malaria, mumps and virus related to organ transplantation rejection. In addition to this, animal testing has also helped in the refinement of procedures related to measuring the blood pressure, pacemaker technology and the perfection of the heart and lung diseases. You will be surprised to read that anesthesia which is used to numb the body during surgery and acute pain is available today after it was successfully tested on animals first.

Human beings are not the only living creatures that have benefited from animal testing. Heart worm medication was devised from research on animals and has to day helped in saving the lives of many dogs. Animal research has also provided better understanding of cat nutrition and the reasons behind as to why cats live longer and remain healthier are better understood.

Finding a cure and a vaccine for AIDS has become one of the most important goals of the medical research industry. The animal models for AIDS are a very important part of the research as they help in understanding the biology of immune-deficiency viruses.

The fact of the matter is that to make advances in the field of medicines, animal testing is a must. Restraining or banning the testing by animal activists will not help in any way. It is up to us and all individuals belonging to animal organizations and medical research to ensure that the same is carried out in a safe, ethical manner causing as little pain and discomfort possible to the animal. If animal testing was to be outlawed then there would be very little scope of obtaining information that would be very necessary to eliminate suffering and premature deaths in both humans and animals.