Unethical Animal Testing

Although the subject of animal testing has long been a controversial topic due to its harmful nature over sentient beings, it has been proven many times to be a “necessary evil” in the biomedical industry. As animal testing is performed in many fields for varying purposes, the legitimacy of purpose for inflicting pain on animals and the ethics of the industry is often in question. The practice of animal testing in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields however, has long been a common practice in developing and improving biotechnology and has had much to show for it in the form of new drugs and new life saving procedures. Furthermore, the safety testing of drugs on animals before marketing (required by the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) has evidently proved to be a necessary step in preventing tragic incidents such as the “1937 ‘Elixir Sulfanilamide’” incident and the thalidomide accident from the late 1950’s to early 1960’s. These incidents exemplified that the wellbeing of humans were being marginalized when their products were not tested before being marketed. Animal testing stands to serve a greater …show more content…
This is partially the reason that the ethical principal of three R’s have been introduced. The three R’s stand to reduce the discomfort of animals by refining, reducing, and replacing animal testing where possible and answers to the question abusing the practice of animal testing where it is not necessary. When faced with a trade off for a necessity such as medical care, however, I believe that animal testing is condonable, and the excerpt above comes to show that majority of the general public is willing to marginalize animal welfare when faced with advancements in medical