Higher Colleges of Technology
Ras Al Khaimah
Animal Experimentation
Controversial Issue Writing Assignment
Academic Reading & Writing
Aisha Sultan AlQassimi
H00203894
Aisha Sultan AlQassimi
H00203894
AET3
Right now, millions of animals are imprisoned, isolated inside cages in laboratories in
many countries. They suffer from pain and loneliness and have nothing to do but
wait for the painful experiment that will be done on them. At the same time,
numerous people are suffering from horrible diseases, others are dying each year
and many are just hoping to find the potential miracle cure that can save their lives
(“more info on animals”, n.d., para. 1).
The issue of animal experimentation has an interesting history, many opposing
viewpoints (for and against) and several scientific benefits.
Definition
Animal experimentations are those researches and tests performed on animals. They
are used to evaluate the usefulness of treatments, cosmetics and food besides
understanding the mechanisms of the human body. Although advocates consider it
as an essential procedure, those who are against animal experimentation believe
that it’s a bad practice on animals that involves cruelty to animals (Murnaghan, n.d.).
History
Animal experimentation has a really long history. It started in the 2nd century when a
Roman physician named Galen started to carry out many experimentations on
animals and wrote 500 documents about how animals’ bodies work. In addition,
there were several people who tried animal testing in the 19 th century, one of them
is Claude Bernard. He performed a lot of experiments on animals and created a
market for animal experimentation. In the 1930s, a disease occurred because of
using a drug without proper testing. This disaster led to over 10,000 babies with
birth problems. After that, the government supported animal experimentations as a
guarantee of drug safety (“How did animal experimentation become so established”,
n.d., para. 1-4).
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Aisha Sultan AlQassimi
H00203894
AET3
The use of animals
Animal experimentation is used for numerous products. Many of these products
have been tried on animals before spreading them. Some of these products are:
drugs, household products, insecticides and cosmetics. As for cosmetics
experimentations, it is apparently one of the most controversial aspects of animal
experimentation. Cosmetics’ testing on animals was forbidden in the UK in 1998, but
it still occurs in many parts of the world (Murnaghan, n.d.).
Opposing viewpoints
There are so many different viewpoints on animal experimentation which can lead to
more advanced examination of this issue. Firstly, people who are against animal
experimentation believe that it’s immoral for many reasons. To start, there are many
similar traits between animals and humans. A good example of humans and animals
similarities is primate experiments. Emotionally, humans have noticed that there are
some similarities between them and primates, such as feeling pain, depression,
hunger and thirst, so they are, therefore, hesitant to use primates for
experimentation, especially if the test would be painful (“Animal Experimentation”,
n.d., para. 1-2 ; “Bad Science or Bad Argument”, n.d., para 8). However, people who
support animal experimentation believe that primate experiments are essential.
They see that primates are used for experiments to make sure that vaccines are safe
because they have similar immune systems to ours. Moreover, scientific facts show
that 97.7% of the DNA in primates and humans are the same which makes primates
good examples to find treatments for human illnesses (“Animal Experimentation”,
n.d., para. 3-4).
Secondly, those people who are against animal experimentation state that animal
experimentation results can lead to wrong conclusions. For instance, they argue that
the response of a drug in an animal's body is very different from the response of a
human. Animals are not in their natural habitat; they may be stressed so they won't
respond to the drugs in the same way they would respond in their natural habitat,
which shows that animal experimentation cannot be relied upon (Murnaghan, n.d.).
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Aisha Sultan AlQassimi
H00203894
AET3
On the other hand, people who are in favor of animal experimentation claim that
animal experimentation results can be false in some aspects but not for describing
general views and facts about biological experiences (Vallance, 2002). They also say
that it’s an effective way to ensure the safety of drugs and many other products,
such as cosmetic testing. Sometimes, drugs may contain some major dangers with
their use, but animal experiments allow researchers to assess the safety of the drugs
before examining them on humans, which saves humans lives (Murnaghan, n.d.).
Another aspect of the animal experimentation issue is the price. Those people who
support experimentation on animals claim that these experiments cost a huge
amount of money, as the animals must be fed, and cared for as well as given drugs.
Conversely, the other team sees that animal experimentation is important due to the
fact that it helps researchers in discovering drugs that improve human health, such
as finding insulin, cancer and HIV drugs. These people do not take costs into
consideration because they are saving humans lives (Murnaghan, n.d.).
Moreover, animal experimentation advocates argue that animals engaged in
experimentations are usually well treated. They are well cared for, given painkillers
when they have pain and actually many of these animals live better lives than
before. However, people who are against animal experimentations believe that
taking care of these animals and treating them well doesn’t reduce their suffering,
because they will still suffer from the experience of being under experimentation.
In addition, those people who are against animal experimentations state that some
people will suffer less than animals. For example, a person in a coma or a mentally ill
person will not feel as much pain as a healthy animal because they are not
cognitively aware. However, morally, society would not allow experimentation on
these people, so we should ethically treat these people and animals the same and
not allow animal experimentation just as we would not allow human
experimentation. On the other hand, animal experimentation supporters claim that
although there is no need to argue the moral rights of disabled people, we can say
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Aisha Sultan AlQassimi
H00203894
AET3
that we all as a species, share relationships and family. Moreover, experimenting on
humans will bring many negative aspects and might carry out greater harm than
good.
As a last point, people who are in favor of animal testing see that many people
would feel pain and die if animal experimentation was banned. Moreover, if banning
animal experimentations policy was accepted, it would lead to more human death
since about 5 new drugs a year are found. Drugs reduce human suffering and pain.
For instance, many people all over the world have benefited from finding penicillin.
In spite of this, people who are against animal experimentations believe that most of
the drugs today, about 75%, do not add much which leads to human pain and leads
to increase of disease. Furthermore, making policies to stop experimentations will
save many animals from suffering. It is morally wrong to make the animals suffer for
human benefit (“This house would ban animal testing”, n.d.).
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Aisha Sultan AlQassimi
H00203894
AET3
Breakthroughs of animal experimentation
Although that there are many opposing viewpoints on the animal experimentation
issue, it has led to much useful knowledge about diseases and brought up many
medical benefits through the last years. For example, experimentations on mice
have led to many advances in medical research for many diseases, such as breast
cancer, autism, childhood blindness and progeria (Animal research generates new
treatments”, 2008, para. 1,8,9,10).
In addition, these are some examples of numbers of operations that have been done
in the UK in a year based on results of animal experimentation:

3,000,000 operations under general anaesthetic

90,000 cataract operations

60,000 joint replacements

13,000 coronary bypasses

10,000 pacemakers implanted

6,000 heart valve repairs repairs or replacement (Donnellan, 2002, p.17)
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Aisha Sultan AlQassimi
H00203894
AET3
To conclude, I would like to say that animal experimentation is playing an important
role in medical advances and improving humans’ lives. Sometimes, in order to
protect humanity, we should put some creatures at risk, and this doesn’t mean that
animals do not have feelings or rights, but it is a requirement towards saving
humanity and getting a better life.
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Aisha Sultan AlQassimi
H00203894
AET3
References
Animal experimentation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/animalexp-article
Animal research generates new treatments, benefits society. (2008). Retrieved
from http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/animal-generates-new-treatments45057.aspx
Bad science or bad argument. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.vegetus.org/essay/aexp.htm
Donnellan, C. Animals in medicines research. (2002). In C, Donnellan Ed. In The
Animal Rights Debate. Independence Educational Publishers.
How did animal experimentation become so established to begin with?. (n.d.).
Retrieved from http://www.safermedicines.org/faqs/faq14.shtml
More info on animals used for experimentation. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/default2.aspx
Murnaghan, I. (n.d.). Using Animals for Testing: Pros Versus Cons. In about
animal testing. Retrived from http://www.aboutanimaltesting.co.uk/usinganimals-testing-pros-versus-cons.html
Murnaghan, I. (n.d.). What is animal testing?. In about animal testing. Retrieved
from http://www.aboutanimaltesting.co.uk/what-animal-testing.html
This house would ban animal testing. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/science-technology/house-would-bananimal-testing
Vallance, P. (2002). Animal experimentations and the doctors, In NCBI Articles.
Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1279906/
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