Should Animals Be Used for Researches?

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Should animals be used for scientific researches? "Biomedical science has not yet reached the stage where there are adequate replacements for the use of non-human primates in research." UK Bioscience Federation The issue of animal testing has certainly raised controversy among people regarding humanistic values and ethics in general over the years. Even though it’s a highly discussed topic and there are many opponents trying to put an end to it, there are several points that need to be taken into account before deciding which side you are on. To start with, people must realize that animal testing has a major impact on the enormous development in medical research which, of course, has an impact on all of us humans, e.g. in terms of medicaments we use. Thanks to animal testing we’ve been able to develop cures and vaccinatinons for illnesses like diabetes, malaria and heart disease, and we are even much closer to finding an effective treatment for cancer. The first reason why animals are important for testing is that the majority of the tests need to be carried out on whole-body systems, otherwise the tests may turn out unreliable. This is crucial mainly because there is no other adequate alternative to running the tests on a living system. For example, if the tests are performed only on cells in a petri dish instead of a living body, there is no way of seeing the reactions of e.g. the central nervous system which is definitely something that must be taken into consideration before the research subject (e.g. medicament) can be fully approved and start being safely used by people. Another important point would be the structure of animals’ bodies and their DNA. Not only do animals used for researches share about 99% similar DNA with humans, but they also possess the very same set of internal organs (lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, etc.) which allow us to
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