Question

One of the ethics papers was on Animal Testing for cosmetics and human medicine including vaccines.  I would like to hear from you your view on animal testing.   Let's exclude animal testing for cosmetics--including toothpaste--and just focus on animal testing for humans' health--including the Corona virus testing going on right now.    WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ANIMAL TESTING.

Answer 1

Answer- Animal testing refers to the use of animals in research purpose such as testing drug efficacy and the safety of products. If we exclude the case of animal testing for cosmetic products, animal experimentation for drug efficacy and vaccine definately has undeniable benefits to humankind, for example, the development of vaccine to combat the deadly coronavirus. If we look at history, the landscape of modern medicine would have been incomplete without animal testing. For example, the discovery of nsulin in the early 20th century was possible only due to research on dogs. In that research, dog's pancreases were removed and experimented for insulin. This has undoubtedly saved and improved the lives of millions of diabetic patients worldwide. Similar is the polio vaccine which was developed only after it was tested on animals. Development of medicine for other disesses such as in breast cancer, brain trauma, leukemia, cystic fibrosis, malaria, multiple sclerosis and tuberculosis etc. are all done through animal experimentation. There would be no vaccine if it were not tested on animals. Thus, animal experimentation is crucial for human lives.

However, it is to be noted that any inhumane treatment in animal experimentation for petty reasons like cosmetics and makeup products is totally unacceptable and cruel and must not be encouraged at all.