Use of animals for research
| Subject: | 🌷 Environment |
| Type: | Argumentative Essay |
| Pages: | 4 |
| Word count: | 901 |
| Topics: | 🐇 Cruelty to Animals, Environmental Issues, Nature, 🐰 Animal Welfare |
essay ASAP?
Scientists have massively adopted the use of animals to conduct research and killing them in the process. However, this does more harm than good. Killing animals to conduct research is violating their right to respectful treatment. The fact that they are living things as humans are, they should be treated right as humans are. Also, the act of killing an animal to conduct a health or scientific research is wasting life. A comparison between the pain and suffering that animals go through to the scientific tasks that they are purposed to fulfill indicates that the act is unjust. The demerits are incomparable to scientific gains expected. Another fact against killing animals for scientific purposes is against the biblical law and beliefs that state human beings have an obligation to take care of other creatures. However, scientists argue that animals are easier to sacrifice for the welfare of humans and other animals.
Animals have a right to respectful treatment. Their inherent value that is equated to that of other living things such as humans is violated when the animals are killed for things such as conduction of research. The same science indicates that the body of animals, contrary to that of plants, has several similarities with that of humans. One of these similarities is that animals have nerves connecting the entire body to the brain. These nerves send messages to the brain through pain (Weil 40). Hence, just like human beings, animals suffer when subjected to injuries or any pain inflicting activity. This scientific finding makes it clear that the process of killing an animal involves torture just as it does with humans. Hence, regardless of the benefits that humans experience through killing animals to carry out scientific studies, the act remains an infringement with the purpose of personal benefits. Hence, it is an unjustifiable act to kill an animal for the sake of scientific research (Institute for Laboratory Animal Research 33).
Secondly, the reasons given for killing animals are not valid enough to prove it as a justifiable act of submitting it to the sufferings. There are scientifically justified options that could provide findings that are equally accurate to those expected through the killing of animals. Some of these options include using dead cells and animal produce to make scientific examinations and extract the required findings (Shipka 25). These methods will not cost the animals pain, as only part of their normal lifestyle is incorporated. The use of dead cells is applied when the animals die because of other causes apart from killing actions of human lives. Immediately after the animals die, its cells can be utilized to acquire important data regarding the lives and welfare of human beings. Hence, it is a valid opinion that the killing of animals should stop, as other available methods of research and scientific examinations can be successfully employed (Comstock 252).
Thirdly, killing any living creature is against the Christian principles. Biblically, it is a role of humans to take care of other creatures. Their welfare was made a responsibility of humans by God. Thus, they are expected to treat them right, protect them and provide them with whatever needs they have. Hence, killing any animal is against these responsibilities. With regard to these principles, the reasons for killing are not considered anymore. The act should be refrained from at all cost (Conn 10).
On the other hand, many people, especially scientists, have presented an argument that killing animals for scientific examinations is an act that does more good than harm. They argue that examining a body of an animal to extract facts regarding the certain diseases, helps to find the cure for the diseases. Through this act, they have described their intentions as to save the life of both humans and animals (Volkan 50). Hence, according to them, one animal is capable of saving the lives of a large population by sacrificing its life for research. However, justifying this will portray selfishness. Killing a creature through torture and pains to save another is an act of inequality (Perdue 22).
In conclusion, it is an act of injustice to kill animals for the sake of scientific research. The reasoning in the first place is not valid, as it is not possible to compare the kind of pain that animals go through for the sake of scientific findings. Scientific research has other options in which it can be carried out to provide accurate results apart from killing an animal. Dead cells can be utilized in extraction of the same findings without causing unnecessary pain and suffering.
- Comstock, Gary. Research Ethics: A Philosophical Guide to the Responsible Conduct of Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print.
- Conn, Micheal. Animal Models for the Study of Human Disease. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Academic Press 2013.
- Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (U.S.). Animal Research in a Global Environment: Meeting the Challenges: Proceedings of the November 2008 International Workshop. Washington: National Academies Press, 2011. Print.
- Perdue, Abigail, and Randall Lockwood. Animal Cruelty and Freedom of Speech: When Worlds Collide. Indiana: Purdue University Press 2014. Print.
- Shipka, Danny. Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960-1980. Jefferson: McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2011.
- Volkan, Vamik. Killing in the Name of Identity: A Study of Bloody Conflicts. Chicago: Pitchstone Publishing, 2006.
- Weil, Kari. Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies Now?New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. Print.
Offered for reference purposes only.