Essay On Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing
Animal testing should no longer be practiced because it is unethical, the results can be misleading, and alternatives are available. It is widely known animal testing injures and kills many animals each year for the sake of the humans that may use the products. According to preventative medicine/public health specialist Aysha Akhtar, worldwide over 15 million animals are used in experimentation and often suffer, even though alternatives to animal testing exist. According to ProCon.org, “animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to force feeding, … food and water deprivation, prolonged periods of physical restraint, the infliction of burns and other wounds to study the healing process, [and] the infliction of pain to study its
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To still test the drugs on living beings, micro-dosing is used. According to PETA, micro-dosing is a method of testing drugs in which small doses are delivered to human volunteers. The amount given to the volunteers is not enough to cause an adverse reaction but is enough for the researchers to gather information on how the chemical reacts with human cells and the human body. According to ProCon.org, in vitro testing is another option as an alternative to animal testing, this involves observing cells in a petri dish and recording the reactions the cells have to the chemicals being tested. In vitro testing is less expensive than animal testing. For example DNA analysis in an animal can cost about $32,000 whereas the equivalent test for the in vitro alternative only costs $11,000. Further, to test products that would touch human skin journalist Geoff Watts proposes artificial human skin as an alternative. A product called EpiDermTM Tissue Model is on the market for research laboratories. This product is, “a 3-dimensional, human cell–derived skin model that replicates key traits of normal human skin.” Although the artificial skin is not made of live cells like other alternatives, it has been proven to be an effective alternative to animal
To still test the drugs on living beings, micro-dosing is used. According to PETA, micro-dosing is a method of testing drugs in which small doses are delivered to human volunteers. The amount given to the volunteers is not enough to cause an adverse reaction but is enough for the researchers to gather information on how the chemical reacts with human cells and the human body. According to ProCon.org, in vitro testing is another option as an alternative to animal testing, this involves observing cells in a petri dish and recording the reactions the cells have to the chemicals being tested. In vitro testing is less expensive than animal testing. For example DNA analysis in an animal can cost about $32,000 whereas the equivalent test for the in vitro alternative only costs $11,000. Further, to test products that would touch human skin journalist Geoff Watts proposes artificial human skin as an alternative. A product called EpiDermTM Tissue Model is on the market for research laboratories. This product is, “a 3-dimensional, human cell–derived skin model that replicates key traits of normal human skin.” Although the artificial skin is not made of live cells like other alternatives, it has been proven to be an effective alternative to animal