Animal research practices in various degrees are happening in all different places for different reasons. Some animals are injected with pain killers for certain procedures and others proceed in painful ways. In the article “Animal Testing Necessary in Medical Research” Lauren Myers points the importance and necessity of animal testing in medical research, while on the other hand Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez oppose to the researches and express the cruelty these animals are going through.
Though controversial I presuppose that animal research is inevitable to avoid unforeseen side effects, cure more diseases, and in the long run saving human species. What would happen if varieties of medical products were brought to market without proper or sufficient pre testing? We wouldn’t know many of the side effects that would eventually cause all sorts of health problems like fragmentations, infections, or death.
Vitek’s implant for instance was presented to the marketplace without proper testing, “Soon after its introduction in 1983, the FDA began receiving reports that Vitek’s implant was fragmenting in patients’ jaws, triggering a chemical reaction that literally eroded away their jawbones”, says Myers (257). It’s crucial that medical products be tested before reaching patients, if the right testing was performed, many people wouldn’t have suffered from eroded jawbones. HIV/AIDS, influenza, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, cancer, schizophrenia, and so many more of these diseases are incurable.
If scientists continue to use animals for medical researches it may be in our favor to discover cures to these severe diseases and help save more lives one by one. People suffer so much from these diseases and sometimes don’t even get to live through teen years. In addition to unforeseen side effects and finding more cures, animal research for medical purposes will help the existing of human species for many more years than without it. Animal testing has been effective to save lives now, but if we continue using animal testing it will also save many more lives in the long run and humans will be around longer.
However, it doesn’t mean animal testing is a pleasant procedure. I do believe that animal testing along the lines for cosmetic reasons is brutality. Its abuse to the animal species, as Andre and Velasquez mention “the lives of all creatures, great and small, have value and are worthy of respect, yet he or she may not be able to act rationally”. We are all creatures on earth trying to survive. Until there is alternate found to animal testing, it is important to our society now for medical purposes only. It helps discover cures, save human species, and avoid unforeseen side effects.