It is true that medicines and other products are routinely tested on animals
before they are cleared for human use.
While l tend towards the viewpoint that animal testing is morally wrong,
l would have to support
a limited amount of animal experimentation for the development of medicines.
On the one hand, there are clear ethical arguments against animal experimentation.
To use a common example of this practice,
laboratory mice may be given an illness so that the effectiveness of
a new drug can be measured,
Opponents of such research argue that humans have no right to
subject animals to this kind of trauma, and that the lives of all creatures
should be respected. They believe that the benefits to humans do not
justify the suffering caused,
and that scientists should use alternative methods of research.
On the other hand, reliable alternatives to animal experimentation
may not always be available. Supporters of the use of animals in medical
research believe that a certain amount of suffering on the part of mice or rats
can be justified if human lives are saved They argue that opponents of such
research might feel differently if a member of their own families needed
a medical treatment that had been developed through the use of
animal experimentation, Personally, i agree with the banning of animal testing
for non-medical products, but l feel that it may be a necessary evil
where new drugs and medical procedures are concerned.
In conclusion, it seems to me that it would be wrong to ban testing on
animals for vital medical research
until equally effective alternatives have been developed.