Taking into account broad discussions around the issue of animal testing, once you get an assignment to write an essay on this topic you should pick a side which you support. Typically, you will be assigned to complete an argumentative paper, therefore, clarifying your position is exceptionally important for developing your thesis statement and choosing proper arguments. If you decide to defend animal testing, you may use the ideas for arguments, which our writing service prepared for you.
Argument 1. Animal Testing Is Essential for Developing Life-Saving Treatments
Medical researchers state that it is animal testing that contributed to the most progressive developments in medicine and health care. Due to experiments on animals now we have treatments for diabetics, brain injuries, breast cancer, malaria and tuberculosis. Especially, doctors highlight the importance of using chimps for testing as they are helpful in finding treatment for Hepatitis B and C.
Argument 2. Animal Experimenting Is the Best and the Safest Method of Testing that Does Not Have a Proper Alternative
Due to the fact that animals’ organisms have a complex structure like humans, they are the most appropriate material for testing products, cosmetics and treatment. The processes which happen in animal’s body are almost the same as those which occur in humans. Some scientists suggest testing on cell organisms; however, it is hardly possible, as such states as blood pressure or blindness cannot be studied in these tissues.
Nowadays, a number of computer models were developed to substitute animal testing. They do provide accurate data, but still they are not as complex as live organisms and cannot simulate brain activity.
Argument 3. Animals Are the Most Biologically Similar Species to People
Typically, mammals have the same organs as people, and are also genetically close to them. According to the statistics, the genetic similarity rate of mammals and humans is up to 98%. Central nervous and bloodstream systems are the same for humans and animals as well, which makes both susceptible to similar diseases.
Argument 4. Ethical Side of Animal Testing
Usually animal testing is necessary for checking medical drugs and treatments on toxicity. In this case risking human life is unethical, as those risks are not necessary. What is more, according to the Helsinki Medical Association, human testing cannot go before animal experiments.
Argument 5. Benefits for Animals
Due to testing vaccines on animals, we save them from numerous illnesses which can cause death. Also, it helps to avoid animal extinction.
Argument 6. Regulations of Animal Testing
It is a well-known fact that animal testing is strictly regulated today, as animal rights protection is a current issue. A number of organizations exist nowadays that deal with controlling whether animal rights are not violated, and animals do not suffer from humans abusing them.
Argument 7. Advantages of Animal Testing
Animals tend to possess shorter cycles of life, which is why they are better objects for experiments than humans. Short life cycles allow to observe all the effects during only some months or years, while human testing cannot provide such rapid results.
Argument 8. Animals Are Treated Humanely
Researchers that held the experiments treat animals humanely, as they do understand all the conditions and possible results of testing. It is done in order to ensure the effects of tests and for the sake of animals.
8 Major Drawbacks of Animal Testing
When writing a pro animal testing essay, it is important to consider the alternative points of view. It will make your animal testing argumentative essay less biased and more profound as you would look at the issue from a different perspective.
Adaptability and innovation have always been most desired attributes of any society. However, in case of such experiments many researchers and companies do not want to relinquish the old practices. There are many reasons for that, and in your animal experimentation essay I suggest that you explore them in detail.
So, let’s study the cons.
The Issue of Ethics
It may seem like the easiest point of debunk in a pro animal testing essay. Those other mammals used for testing, although sharing 98 % of DNA with us, do not have a conscious mind and moral capability. Nonetheless, they can suffer just like humans do, and very often their agony results in a premature death.
In your animal testing essay, you can explore this issue from a philosophical perspective. Are people really entitled to attribute value to other living beings? What about mentally ill patients who just like animals are deprived of any consciousness or morality? Is it justified to experiment on them as well?
The issue of ethics can provide for a good title for a pro animal testing essay. It is a very broad topic with many implications to explore.
The Existence of Alternatives
The world is moving forward, and things that were once taken for granted and celebrated now are discarded to the wasteland of history. In a good animal argumentation essay, it is crucial to mention the alternatives and extrapolate on them.
For instance, human cells can be cultivated in laboratories to replicate human organs, their functions and reactions. Those mini-organs can then be utilised for medicine testing and the study of biological processes in human body.
It is true that cell testing is not a solution to all research challenges, and many experiments involving, for instance, measuring of blood pressure or studying of the endocrine and immune systems cannot be carried out using cells. Nonetheless, it is also worth mentioning in your essay that many labs resort to testing practices even when other, more humane alternatives are available.
The Three RRRs
Those are reduction, refinement and replacement. As you might have guessed, it is a plan that many countries have adopted to decrease the number of tested animals. This is an argument you can employ in your animal testing argumentative essay to explain why this practice is bound to be eradicated.
Reduction presupposes companies, laboratories and research centers to minimise the manipulation of this horrific practice in their experiments by regulating the number of animals affected, ameliorating experimental techniques and data analysis methods, as well as implementing novel procedures that do not involve such terrifying procedures whenever possible.
Refinement involves making the lives of tested animals more refined. In regards to this concept you can explore the necessity of the obligatory anesthesia, medical treatment and proper living conditions in your animal experimentation essay. This broad topic also can present you with many ideas for a good title for animal testing essay.
Replacement, as the title suggests, must comprise a number of steps to transition from testing to other, more modern ways of conducting experiments, comprising computer modeling, the aforementioned cell cultures, volunteer microdosing as well as the study of human tissue.
The Overrated Contribution
Many advocates of testing practices reference examples from the past as a proof of its overall necessity and inevitability if humans want to continue their progress. However, it is hard to predict whether humans would be able to make the same discoveries without availing these gruesome methods. Moreover, the whole idea of progress is predicated on human ability to move on, tossing away the outdated practices.
It is true that insulin was developed thanks to many dogs’ subjects having their pancreases removed and then injected with insulin. However, in your animal testing paper, you can refer to Paul Langerhans, a German medical student who spotted the cells in the pancreatic tissue with the unknown function. He was the reason why Frederick Banting got his breakthrough idea in the first place.
As you might have guessed, Paul Langerhans did not need dogs to make his discovery. Animals sped up Banting’s research, but hurt many dogs. Here the question arises whether those unethical practices were worth the ultimate result. In case of Frederick Banting the answer is most certainly yes, as insulin saved many people. However, a great deal of modern research is superficial, and it is always hard to determine the future impact of studies based upon animal testing.
The Lack of Reliability
It is remarkable, but only 95% of animal tests prove effective on humans. This is contributed to the fact that also a 2% divergence in genome may seem minor, it results in major differences between humans and other mammals.
In your animal testing argumentative essay, you can mention that the European Union instituted a ban on animal cosmetics testing with a two-fold explanation for this drastic measure. First of all, it was demonstrated that some creatures like rats have much more sensitive eyes than humans, thus rendering experiments unreliable. Secondly, there are other, more credible alternatives accessible, such as tissue testing that you can discuss in your essay.
Sometimes, this lack of reliability can lead to deplorable and truly tragic consequences. A famous example is thalidomide medication that was prescribed as a sedative for patients with anxiety, tension and insomnia in 1957, mostly in West Germany. As a result, out of 10,000 born infants only 50% survived, many of whom still suffered severe deformities, sight and hearing loss.
The truth is that what works for animals may not work for humans. Rezulin which worked perfectly for rats with type 2 diabetes triggered liver failure in humans. In your animal testing essay, you can write about the risky nature of the whole enterprise which can cause disastrous consequences for common people.
Animal Tests Are Expensive
For some reason this fact often goes overlooked. Many people would naturally assume that more advanced technology would cost more money. However, technology also means efficiency and durability. In your animal testing argumentative essay, you can expound upon this popular myth.
The fact of the matter is that in order to yield reliable results one need a lot of life forms. However, for computer models all you need is the ability to infuse the programme with the necessary data and perform a corresponding analysis.
Even for a common dissection class schools incur a huge financial loss. It would be much more farsighted to buy the computer modeling software that would last for generations.
Many Are Left Out
There are many regulations imposed by the governments throughout the world to protect animals’ rights that you can mention in your essay. Nonetheless, animals that are mostly used in testing are suspiciously left out.
This is a topic that can offer a good title for animal testing essay. Why did Animal Welfare Act deliberately omit or forget about animals, such as rats, mice and fish? Just because they are small does not mean they feel less pain than dogs or cats.
This allows researchers to treat those creatures as they please. In your animal experimentation essay, you can explore the morality of this situation as well as how this myth about animal protection leaves many people indifferent to their rights’ violations.
The World Is Moving Forward
In your animal testing essay it is worth mentioning that, although some of its practices are now necessary and have no alternatives, it does not presuppose that there will be no better options in the future. The world is moving forward, and every year new experimentation methods emerge as an attempt to make science more humane and, of course, more efficient.
In your essay you can mention that this action often results in subjective and faulty observations of scientists with a very limited and random control sample. Computer models allow them to eliminate the factor of bias and data manipulation. Cell cultures are closer to human’s organism than any animals could be. Therefore, the alternative testing methods are not just more ethical, but also more trustworthy and effective for science in general.
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