In modern times, science has made even the seemingly impossible aspects of life possible. Biotechnology is such a field of science that deals with diverse facets of human life. Our life span is increased to great amount by the development of biotechnology. The ailments and diseases that were once incurable and thought to be life threatening seem to be nothing to worry about these days. With the help of biotechnology scientists are able to create different drugs and medicines to cure previously fatal diseases and make the life of the humans better. However, it would appear that this progress in the field of biotechnology and medicine does not come without cost. While the financial costs of such progress would not be questions, the most pressing cost in question is that of life – animal life. Animal testing of products has been a dark spot on an otherwise glorious biotechnological record. Advances in biotechnology and research today have made it unnecessary to test products on animals and hence governments need to review their laws on permitting such testing.
Nearly twenty million animals are used each year for different scientific research purposes. Around three-fourth of this twenty million are used for different medical experiment purpose and the remaining numbers of animals are used for developing other products for human consumption. Nearly eight million animals are used for painful trials as well. Even painkillers are also not used to lessen the suffering of the animals in these cases . Technological advances have led to several alternatives to animal testing being available for research purposes today. Human-based advanced brain-imaging techniques can be used like PET, fMRI, MRI, EEG and CT. Previously antibodies were generated by injecting the infected cells in the rat’s body. But it can be done at present days using the DNA in the laboratory. Microdosing is a research technique that can be used to measure the safety of a drug under trial. There are several other methods, all of which has been widely lauded and have been welcomed in most countries, specifically in the US .
Now it is a well established fact that biotechnology has helped to develop several drugs to cure different ailments and there are those who profess the need for animal testing to sustain this growth. It would never be accepted by any person in this world that a drug may be used upon a patient without knowing its proper efficiency and side-effects. If different drugs are used on different patients in an unregulated way, then it would have obviously harmed the humans to a huge extent. Due to this reason it has become a granted fact that different animal models are used in different laboratories to test the drugs before applying them to any human patient. There are several positive factors to support these use of live animal models for experiment.
Firstly, experimenting on animals saves the life of valuable human resources. As the mammals are used mostly in case of any experiments and we are very similar to these animals as we are mammal too, hence, different medicines, cosmetics and different other products are manufactured upon experimenting on mammal animals. Another factor is it is always better to sacrifice the life of an animal rather than the life of a human for the sake of research and development of new drugs and products. So it is not a crime. Using animals is also less pricey and most dependable than using any other model as the mammals are mostly use in experiment purpose and we too are mammals. Hence, various systems of our body and physiological reactions match with those of the mammals’ system used for experimenting.
The persons’ who hold the medieval idea that killing of animals is beneficial for the welfare of human being describe as their defense that experimenting on animal helps in the development of new drugs and products that upholds the wellbeing of human society. But these people should also consider the moral paradox while using this dialogue for their defense. However logical they may be, but nobody can support the killing of animals as it is remarkably unethical.
While developing a new drug innumerable animals are tested in the laboratory. Many animals are killed after the experiment is over. In different cases the animals that are injured are kept alive throughout their life in deformed condition in captivity. The most regrettable aspect in this case is that most of the experiments will never get any approval for public utilization. It is the most negative factor of experimenting with animals according to several animal rights activists. In such cases it is found at the end of the experiment that the animal died with loads of suffering, or may be the animal is in captivity with malfunctioning body system and body parts. But the sacrifice of the animal did not benefit the mankind directly in anyway. So it is really unethical. Hence, this is a very strong point to refute the killing of animals.
The feelings of pain are an intrinsic factor. May it be an adult, a child or even an animal, but it is a truth that everybody feels pain and everybody suffers. So forcing the animals to suffer cannot be supported morally and ethically and hence should not be imposed as well. Shouldn’t we become conscious that animals too feel pain? Should we experiment on animals because they cannot talk? Should we test on them because they don’t protest? So, it is undoubtedly very unethical to impose pain to any human being as well as the animals also. All the creatures in this world deserve respect. May it be a human being or may it be an animal, but it is definitely true that we should respect everybody and every living being. Justice demands equal interest and respect towards all living creatures.
In the human society we demand for equality for all the races and all the sexes. The racist holds respect of his own race and not for any other race. Similarly, it can be described as “Specialism”, that is to respect the own species and imposing sufferings to the other species. If any act of racism or sexism occurs, we shout and protest against it in the society. So, we should stop showing “Specialism” also and bother about the sufferings of the animals. Animals like the human beings also have the right to a proper life.
It is undoubtedly true that exploiting the animals is unethical and it has been noted that there is no proof that animal subjects are even needed for research in biomedical fields . But if we forget the ethical aspect and just consider the credibility of these animals for developing new drugs, then also we may have some doubt as the scientists even cannot certify the use of animals in their laboratories for scientific research. It is obvious that there may be some similarity in the physiological system between the animals and us but they cannot be the same . There are fine differences in the metabolism process, anatomy, and physiology between us and the animals. So it is not always easy and undesirable to expect the same result and same effect of a medicine in an animal and the humans. Scientific studies with animals do not dependably foretell its outcomes in human beings .
For example, Acetaminophen is used for curative purpose in humans but it is lethal to cats; in cats, morphine causes hyper-excitement, but it shows an astonishingly soothing result in the humans; similarly, though penicillin is lethal if applied to the guinea pigs, yet it is a priceless means for the remedy of human ailment; oral contraceptives amplify a human’s possibility of rising blood clots though it extend the duration of blood-clotting in dogs. There are several other examples also which supports the fact that animals and humans do not show same result for a same medicinal agent. Even similar inconsistencies can be seen in different individuals of the similar species, amid different sexes of the same species, class, maturity and body mass ranges and even within different racial backgrounds. In fact many health problems fatal at the present era are species-specific. For example- cancer, AIDS, psychopathology, Alzheimer’s, and drug addiction.
Among ten promising drugs that have shown exceptional results in animal treatment, nine of them fails after they are experimented on humans. It is because of the fact that animals and humans have some inherent differences in their body. Their genetic constituents of the body may be comparable but not 100% matching. This problem is seen in genetic diseases like familial breast cancer and cystic fibrosis. In most of the cases a genetic model is created with genetic faults that are created in the laboratory. Basically, the diseases that are occurred due to any genetic reason reveal relations between the gene that is defective and several other genes and also the surroundings. As a result, almost all similar models are unsuccessful to make a replica of the important appearances of the comparable human circumstances in natural condition .
As a result, the drugs fail to work in humans though shows promising function in animals. In 2004, Pfizer reported that they have spent more than $2 billion for the past ten years for experimenting different drugs on animals and maintaining the animals. But all the expenses were in vain as most of the drugs were ineffective in humans and some of them showed liver toxicity. As a result of which the drugs were taken off from the market . In reality, numerous reports have been published in recent times that approved that several drugs have caused severe and unanticipated health troubles. This had driven the Food and Drug Administration or FDA to compel the manufacturers of the products to take off the products from selling. Or else, a black box is required as caution on the tags of the product.
FDA has also described that undesirable trials related to the drugs used on the humans are the sole most important contributor that causes unnecessary harm to the patients. It may even cost millions of lives. This causes a huge number of patients to take admission in hospitals annually and increases a nation’s rate of people being hospitalized. And the numbers of people dying each year due to drug related problems outside hospitals are simply immeasurable . This is an obvious fact that effective medicines for the animals do not work effectively upon the human beings. Similarly this is also true that a drug that is inefficient in animals may work superbly upon the human beings. But the disheartening fact is that, when a medicine fails to work efficiently on an animal, it is not further experimented upon any human being.
As a support to this point of view, we may refer the fact of Pfizer. The cholesterol reducing drug Lipitor was initially not thought of seriously due to its failure to work on animals. But some scientists requested that they will continue the study with human healthy volunteers. The most amazing fact was, the drug showed extremely good result after being used upon the humans. So, depending upon the animals often hinders the discovery of a new drug.
After creating the model animal, the drugs are tested upon them. Though the entire process is very expensive, still it is uncertain that the drug will show any positive result upon the animal or not. After the experiment, if the drug is well-suited for the animals then it is applied for human trials. If during this time also the drug shows success, then only the entire experiment is a successful one. Otherwise the entire energy, time and money spent for this research are all gone in vain. Even sometimes the drug shows no result on the animals. In this case all the expenditure for maintaining the animal and making the model animal, all goes in vain.
Other than the truth that for the humans, animals seem to be poor surrogates and the blueprint of experiments in animals are over and over again naturally imperfect. Hence it becomes obvious that results attained from such studies will not be always functional. Researchers from the Medical Center of Vanderbilt University illustrated various problems due to experimenting with “model” animals in an article in the year of 2004 . According to them, designing of studies on animals artificially repeatedly controls numerous variables that baffle the researchers after the effects are studied on humans. The phenotypes as well as the genotypes are not accurately one and the same in animals and humans, but in actuality an inadequate illustrations of the humans. As a result, in most situations, studies on animals do not evaluate the position and function of naturally happening ailments and its sound effects on the specific phenotypes.
Experiments on animals are never possible for some diseases like cancer, heart diseases, developing vaccines. Several unique factors function behind these diseases due to which the situation cannot be replicated in animals. For example, 80% of the cancers are curable. This disease occurs due to smoking, fat diets, environmental pollution and several other lifestyle related factors. So it is never possible for the scientists to create all the external and lifestyle related factors to experiment on a model animal .
After the drugs are implemented on the model animals successfully, and the drugs are sold in the market, the doctors often do not judge the credibility of the drug and refers the drug to his patients. These sometimes become deadly. As latest examples the drug “Flecainide” and “Encainide” can be mentioned that were supposed to cure heart ailments. These drugs were marketed in the US during in the year 1987. Though the drugs were sold in the market after successful trials on animals, still they are responsible for human deaths of nearly 3000 individuals .
In conclusion, it can be said that experimenting on animals is not desired scientifically as well as morally also due to several other reasons also. Trials on animals sometimes baffle the researchers. On the other hand experimenting on animals can be stated as an evil practice and sin as we see the different ancient periods. Experimenting on animals and making them suffer for the benefit of the mankind is same as following slavery or imperialism. May be these practices were accepted once upon a time. But they are unacceptable from the point of justice and humanity. Similarly imposing sufferings upon the helpless animals should be stopped on ground of justice and humanity. It is an undoubted fact that if we want to advance our medical science and researches, it is obvious to pursue new approaches. Veterinary medicines experimented upon animals should not be used upon human beings anymore. It is deceptive and risky to make use of statistics of one species to the other. There is infinite number of examples that shows differences between non-human animals with the humans. Experimenting on animals is beneficial to some extent but it is mostly an unethical and inhuman activity towards the animals. It is morally disputed, strictly inadequate and also imperfect. Moreover researches on animals have increased the expenses unprecedentedly. So it is time now to stop experimenting on helpless animals and try experiments with some other appropriate substitutes. In this present era, when science has advanced so much, we can expect to use any other alternative model rather than experimenting on animals. I personally accept it as true that we are showing very cruelty towards the animals and returning back to the uncivilized epoch though we claim that we are civilized. So it is very immoral and selfish activity to use animal models for experiment purpose and ethically very unjust activity shown towards helpless animals.
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