Does Animal Experimentation Meet Ethical Standards?

Over the years, animal experimentation has been an ongoing debate about whether the procedures meet ethical standards. Animal experimentation is the use of living animals for research purposes to assess the effectiveness of new medicine and consumer products. Animal testing is used towards enhancing products such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food additives, and household cleaners so that toxic encounters do not occur. Animals that are involved in experimental testing experience psychological distress, extensive pain, and suffering. The animals can either be re-used or killed at the end of an experiment. Animals cannot be re-used for convenience or cost saving benefits. An invasive procedure on a single animal can only be conducted once, however minor procedures can be performed more than once. Animal experimentation is a controversial topic worldwide due to the various positive and negative outcomes that the testing provides. …show more content…
An advantage of animal testing is the contribution to life saving cures and treatments. Other benefits include healthier lives, safer drugs, and the prevention of human experimentation. A major disadvantage of animal testing is the level of cruelty that an animal forcibly receives. Other negative aspects are the disregard towards alternative testing methods and costly procedures. The statistic that "95% of animals used in experiments are not protected by the Animal Welfare Act" is also another disadvantage (procon.org). Even though animal experimentation is beneficial to global advances, some people strongly support the protection of animal