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Should Animals Be Used in Research?
Many people believe that animals must be utilized for instructing and learning in research and science and are required as models for human wellbeing research. I also support this notion but believe that the use of animals can be taken care of in a way that animal utilization as such can be diminished. There is no need to kill animals for the scientific research to the extent we are doing right now. Animals too have a nervous system and they feel pain the same way we do, hence, unless there are no alternative methods available, animal testing should not be an option to pursue. Festing, Simon and Robin Wilkinson entail, “Procedures that subject animals to distress are permitted only when an alternative procedure is unavailable and when the research is justified by its prospective value.”
It is essential here to define the area of animal research in which they are being used. i.e. animals should never be used to test cosmetics, or other, non-essential products. It is one thing to cause an animal suffering in your quest to find a cure for AIDS, quite another to burn its eyes with chemicals from your new perfume range.
Furthermore, researchers should ensure that animals should never suffer, unless it's essential for the tests. (So, if the test can be done on an unconscious animal, or one on heavy doses of painkillers without skewing results, then it should be done that way.) As reinstated by the chapter, it is impertinent to consider that if there is an alternative to animal testing, it should be used. No animal should be used for more than one type of experiment in its lifetime. Sometimes, if the tests are unrelated and will not affect each other’s results, animals go from one lab to another to participate in multiple experiments. In my book, that's a double dose of possible suffering — after one experiment, the animal has paid its dues. Obviously, if research involves several different tests on the same animal, then that's what has to be done, but it shouldn't then be passed on to another department for another set for their research.
References
Feldman, Robert Stephen, and Mark Garrison. Understanding psychology. Vol. 10. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1993.
Festing, Simon, and Robin Wilkinson. "The ethics of animal research: Talking Point on the use of animals in scientific research." EMBO reports 8, no. 6 (2007): 526-530.
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