Animal RightsAs Doctor Zola-Morgan stated in a speech to animal right activists,I’ve seen the impact of the animal rights movement. I believe this is anattack on science of the worst kind. If we allow it to prevail it willtake us back to the dark ages.
Too much of the public has come to thinkof medical researchers as tormenters rather than healers. The good isoverlooked and the bad is exploited. Although many people think thatanimal research is morally wrong, animal research should continue becauseit is critical to continued progress in human health and alternatives to research animals are not available. Animal rights activists feel that animal research is immoral.
They donot see where we as human beings see or feel that we are the dominantspecies. They often assert that research with animals causes severe painand that many research animals are abused. The activists do not feel theneed to put the animals through such pain. Many of the experiments arereplicated also which causes an unneeded demand for animals to performexperiments. Experiments which have already been proven are still beingexperimented with. However, animal research is an integral part of today’s society whenthinking of how much progress we have gained in human health with the useof animal experimentation.
To date some forty-one Nobel prizes have beenawarded to scientists whose achievements depended on laboratory animals. Vaccines against polio, diphtheria, mumps, measles, rubella, and smallpoxwould not have been possible without such experiments. There also wouldnot be such important techniques such as open heart surgery, brain surgery,coronary bypass, microsurgery to re-attached limbs, organ transplants, andcorrection of congenital heart defects. The list goes on about the medicaladvances that required animal research. Insulin to control diabetes andmedications important in the management of asthma, epilepsy, arthritis,ulcers, and hypertensions are a few more to add to the list.
To takeanimal research away would also be to halt our society’s advancement ofmore procedures and more medicines to enhance the better living of humans. In addition, there are no alternatives to animal experimentation thatcan give the same results that it can. In certain research investigations,cell, tissue, organ cultures, and computer models can be used at least inthe preliminary phases of the investigation. However, in many experimentalsituations, culture techniques and computer models do not capture thephysiological complexity of the whole animal. Some examples of whereanimals are necessary in research include the development of a vaccineagainst HIV and improvement of methods to relieve mental stress andanxiety. These challenges can only be addressed by research with animals.
Computer models and cultures cannot get the whole body effect of anexperiment. Humans are the only alternatives to animals for this and whenfaced with this alternative, most people prefer the use on animals as theresearch model.Anthropology
