When speaking of the context of the 21st century, the notions of cruelty and violence do not seem to fit there, considering all the positive changes taking place around. However, while the vast majority of people take care of their environment, others desperately look for a way to exploit everything around them. One of the most vivid examples of such cruelty is animal testing, in terms of which animals are to suffer from medical or cosmetic experiments. In fact, it was established in the recent survey that 65% of the respondents considered medical animal testing to be ethically acceptable (Kabene & Baadel, 2019). On the contrary, more than 80% of participants regarded cosmetics testing on animals as an inappropriate violation. The survey results claim that animal testing is absolutely necessary for terms of medical studies. However, if previously researchers had limited opportunities in terms of anatomy investigation, today’s world is replete with safe and accurate data. Hence, I believe that animal testing should be banned due to its cruelty, discrepancy, and obsolescence.
First and foremost, experiments held on animals are, by all means, inhuman and violent. When testing a substance or injection, animals have three options for how the experiment finishes. In the best-case scenario, testing did not harm the animal, and the overall outcome for the researchers is positive. There is also a chance of the animal’s immediate death after the experiment. In the worst possible case, however, the animal struggles with poisonous injections that destroy it from the inside. People who act in favor of such experiments may claim that many of today’s biological achievements were made due to animal testing, and they would be right. However, the successful outcome rate is miserable if compared to all the animals that were mistakenly killed by scientists. Furthermore, most of the animals chosen for testing are to spend the rest of their lives in captivity with no particular intention but to allow one to do experiments without double-checking the calculations.
Secondly, such an approach to investigations and experiments is obsolete. The technological advancements of the 21st century allow people to be one step away from commercial trips to outer space. However, people still refer to animal testing when dealing with medications and cosmetics. Modern technology provides scientists with a variety of alternative testing methods that have practically identical prices. The most widespread alternative is stem cells – a procedure, which allows scholars to evaluate the cells grown in Petri dishes on the subject of disease and toxin testing (Kabene & Baadel, 2019). Another available option to replace experiments on animals is 3D images applications. With these images, scientists obtain access to the high-resolution pictures of the human body’s slightest constituents like tissues. Furthermore, advanced technology permits the image to be modified according to one’s requirements. As mice and rats are quite frequently used as samples to investigate behavioral patterns, their work could be successfully replaced by computer simulation. This device implies exploring the peculiarities of human behavior in order to collect the data and later apply it to the actual testing process (Kabene & Baadel, 2019). Moreover, cosmetics testing can also be executed without animals’ intervention – with the help of biochips.
Finally, the very concept of animal testing is highly controversial. Although it is a generally accepted fact that some animals, e.g., rats, have a constitution similar to humans, they will never be the same as human samples. Hence, when testing medication on animals, even a positive outcome of the experiment will never guarantee the same result for a human being. Regarding this point, the whole concept of these experiments makes no practical sense. Thus, the struggles of thousands of animals are not even completely justified by the desire to help humanity. The lack of animal testing supporters is especially evident nowadays due to the change of historical context. If previously the only choice scientists had was the one between animals and human beings, today there is a whole different paradigm. Consequently, animal testing is now perceived as an act of violence rather than a part of a scientific project.
Considering all the arguments, it should be concluded that animal testing should be banned due to its cruelty, discrepancy, and obsolescence. Although the vast majority of people are now still supporting the idea of exploiting animals to conduct various experiments. However, the research has shown that medical and beauty segments are now able to find a safe alternative to animal testing. The major idea behind such dissonance stems from people’s unawareness of the subject, as they consider such shifts expensive and inefficient. Hence, one of the major goals people like me should pursue is to properly educate citizens who directly influence the market. Once the vast majority is familiarized with the arguments presented above, there is a chance to overcome the discrepancy, irrelevance, cruelty, and obsolescence of this process. The future concerns of the issue may be focused on the issues of zoos and circuses that also violate all the animals’ freedoms.
Reference
Kabene, S., & Baadel, S. (2019). Bioethics: a look at animal testing in medicine and cosmetics in the UK. Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, 12(15), 1-11.