Learning English Wang Xuanjing: final draft example

The new trends in animal testing

Animal testing is known to have a long history, which has been performed since ancient Greek time. The majority of animals in the laboratory are mammals; some common types of animals are rats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, etc. Different types of animals may serve different functions. As we all know, animal testing has been involved in various areas like pharmacology, toxicology, cosmetics, biochemical research, etc. However, in recent years, animal testing has become a controversial topic about whether we should still conduct animal testing or not. Although there are many reasons to support animal testing, and it has brought a great amount of noticeable benefits to human’s welfare in the long run, evidence shows that animal testing actually is inhuman, costly, and not accurate enough to apply in our lives.

The first reason to be against animal testing is that all creatures whether they are higher animals or lower animals can have value and are worthy of respect. Life’s value cannot be measured; therefore, all animals’ lives are priceless. For this reason, human do not have the rights to deprive animals of their lives by doing animal testing. Some people might believe that animal testing can improve the treatment of various diseases and further the advancement of science. According to scholarly article by Andre and Velasquez (1988), the animals “should be respected, which includes respect for their interest to be spared undeserved pain.” Although some countries proposed a law to protect the animals from the pain in testing, some sorts of animal testing have to use animals’ nervous system. Evidence indicates that the majority of laboratory animals are in the possession of nervous systems which respond noxious stimuli in a similar way compared to human beings(Carstens and Moberg, 2000); therefore, animal testing to a great extent inevitably causes agony and disorder on animals. Animal testing has been gradually symbolized as a kind of uncivilized performance; therefore, in a bid to adapt to the civilized progress, it is necessary and urgent to come up with new alternative methods to replace animal testing.

The second reason to be against animal testing is that it is causes much more pressure on monetary budgets and personal medical cost in comparison with alternative methods. In recent years, scientists and researchers have designed some new biomedical technologies serving the purpose of replacing animal testing that is inevitably considered as traditional and to a large extent, costly. From the perspective of economists, animal testing cannot be widely applicable in the long run because animal use is considerably expensive compared to alternative methods. Some people might believe that animal testing has been refined to alleviate the pain and distress of laboratory animals. However, according to research by Ranganatha and Kuppast (2012), “non-animal tests are more cost-effective, practical and expedient” compared to the traditional animal testing. In addition, if the cost of animal testing is too high, in order to be in line with the costs of inventing the products, the prices of these products are accordingly high so that people have to pay more.

The final reason to be against animal testing is that the production of many drugs are based on animal testing, but scientists still cannot fully predict the results when the drugs are applied on human beings. Some people might believe that animal testing can help the scientists find better medical cures to carry out the life-saving activities. For example, heart disease and cancer death rates are reducing, because all the drugs are made through animal testing to cure and prevent, just as the scientists believe this is the better way to help people (Mukerjee, 1997). However, in contrast, there are many drugs with side-effects which literally inflict irreversible and non-compensable damage on people’s whole lives. For example, according to research done by Merkes (2012), “Thalidomide had been tested on several animals species and found to be safe, yet thousands of children worldwide were born with missing or shortened limbs after their mothers took the drug for morning sickness.” In a word, animal testing may be fraught with some potential medical dangers which we cannot predict.

In sum, though we cannot deny that animal testing truly has a great amount of contribution to our lives, there is strong evidence that animal testing is expensive, not totally precise and cruel. Animal testing brings about monetary and financial issues, furthermore, the results of the animal testing are unpredictable as well as animals also should be respected and protected by people no matter they are higher or lower. However, at present, many a technology on inventing new drugs or cosmetics is still very immature, which gives an inch to carrying out animal testing. Under the special circumstance, the most urgent challenge is to seek a diversity of alternative methods so as to cover as many aspects as possible. Therefore, in a large sense, investment on alternative methods is also significant and necessary.