What Is The Scheme With Animal Experiments?

Animal experiments in scientific research have a long history and are still a common practice in scientific research. Approximately 115 million animals are used each year for these purposes. However, many people are against what has to do with animal experiments.

Even in ancient times, animal experiments were common. In the year 200 BC. Doctors in Alexandria performed experiments on both living and dead animals. During the 15th century in Italy, however, modern experimentation began in earnest. Researchers used live animals, especially dogs and pigs, to demonstrate the different functions of body parts.

In the 18th century you can look at the work of Albrecht von Haller, who used almost 200 animals to prove sensitivity in living tissue. The basis for Haller’s work was that the animals felt pain. He demonstrated this by measuring the reactions to various painful stimuli.

Haller was the first person to apologize for inflicting animal pain. It is an example that shows a new sense of responsibility that is found in several publications from that century.

Now that you have learned something about history, you can look at the arguments used by those who stand for and against this way of studying.

Arguments in favor of research with animal experiments

Animal experiments have been useful in almost all medical discoveries in the 20th century. In fact, almost all Nobel Prize winners in physiology and medicine since 1901 have based their studies on data taken from animal experiments.

In addition, humans are very similar to other animals. We have the same organs and suffer from similar diseases such as cancer, influenza, tuberculosis and asthma. In this way, non-animal methods, although crucial to rounding out the information, cannot replace the use of animals.

Modern surgical techniques (hip replacement, heart transplants, blood transfusions, etc.) and scanning techniques (CT and TM) were also perfected in animal experiments.

Arguments against research with animal experiments

On the other hand, it is unethical to judge the lives of beings who feel like a laboratory cage and cause them pain and fear. By using innovative techniques, researchers have been able to develop research methods without animals, for example as in vitro technologies, bacterial cultures and human patient simulators. So why not continue to focus on developing these advances?

In addition, most animal experiments do not have biomedical purposes. In other words, they are not trying to improve human health. Organizations perform these experiments to test cosmetics or household products, or for military research or environmental impact testing.

The scientific value of biomedical experimentation with animals is much lower than many people think. This has many implications, for example:

• People who participate in the experiments and those who later consume the products or medicines when they are marketed, are still exposed to injuries that may not have been detected in animal experiments. As it turns out, our human bodies are not as similar as experts previously thought.
• This can prevent the development of beneficial treatments for humans even if they had a harmful effect on other animals.

What is being done in other countries?

Most developed countries have laws to minimize the use of laboratory animals and minimize pain. The EU has one of the strictest laws in the world, which covers all vertebrates and squid and includes both criteria for the care of animals and for the facilities involved.

In the United States, federal law does not mention mice, rats, birds, or fish, which make up 95% of the animals used in laboratories. However, these species are considered in other non-federal regulations. Other countries have regulations on this as well. In Canada, provincial authorities are responsible for regulating animal testing. China, for its part, adopted the first national law on animal welfare in 2006.

Perhaps the most demanding regulation in the world is that of the United Kingdom. England requires a cost-benefit analysis to authorize animal testing, as well as to customize licenses for those conducting the tests.