Ethical Aspects Of Animal Testing

Many companies and businesses use animals for research and testing out new products. Members in the scientific community also use animals to further their research. Using animals for these purposes are necessary. After all, animals played a huge role in many medical research and breakthroughs over the last couple decades. Without animal testing, we wouldn’t have many household products, cosmetics, or even drugs which help prevent diabetes, HIV and cancer. In these situations, animals help advance new medicine and technology to benefit human development. Though sometimes, in the name and sake of research, animals undergo unnecessary torture and abuse in order to test a single substance, which should not be the case. Instead, other methods …show more content…
The 3Rs method is a starting point to changing the current situation in animal testing. The Three Rs – Replacement, Reduction and Refinement – are the guiding principles for more ethical treatment of animals in testing. In a publication written for Human & Experimental Toxicology, the 3Rs stand for “refining animal use to lessen or avoid pain and distress and enhance animal well-being, reducing the total number of animals required for specific studies, and replacing animals with nonanimal systems and approaches” (Stokes 1298). This concept encourages replacements, but aim to improve animal welfare when animal testing cannot be …show more content…
For example, The Draize rabbit skin test costs $1800 whereas another in-vitro test, the EpiDerm human skin model test, costs $850 (“Costs of Animal and Non-Animal Testing”). According to the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS), an in-vitro test for EpiDerm proved to be more accurate than in vivo testing, claiming “in comparison studies, EpiDerm correctly detected all of the test chemicals that irritate human skin, while tests on rabbits misclassified 10 out of 25 test chemicals—a full 40% error rate” (“In Testing…”). Whereas traditional animal testing can cost millions of dollars and take up to a couple years to process, alternatives “can test hundreds of chemicals in a week for a fraction of the cost” (“In Testing…”). These alternatives serve as different techniques to understand the bigger picture of why experiments are performed in the first place- to gather data and expand a scientist’s understanding on a subject. Using alternates are meant to provide a positive impact on the welfare of animals using different, more animal-friendly practices while simultaneously providing information about the research