FREE ESSAY ON ANIMAL RIGHTS

ANIMAL RIGHTS

Animals have been used in medical research for centuries. Most of the animals used for
research are rodents - rats, mice, hamsters and gerbils. Some dogs, cats and a variety of
goats, ferrets, pigeons, monkeys and rabbits are also used .The struggle against this
tyranny is a struggle as important as any of the moral and social issues that have been
fought over in recent years. Animal rights are an emotional issue-second only, perhaps,
to the bitter abortion debate. For decades the value of animal research has been grossly
overrated. Although researchers have depended on animal test data to achieve medical
advances, there should be other means of research because testing on animals is cruel,
inhumane, and often unnecessary. 
The American Medical Association believes that research involving animals is absolutely
essential to maintaining and improving the health human beings. They point out, that
virtually every advance in medical science in the 20th century, from antibiotics to organ
transplants, has been achieved either directly or indirectly through the use of animals
in laboratory experiments. They also emphasize that animal research holds the key for
solutions to AIDS, cancer, heart disease, aging and congenital defects. Lastly they
insist that, the result of these experiments has been the elimination or control of many
infectious diseases. This has meant a longer, healthier, better life with much less pain
and suffering for humans. For many patients, it has meant life it self.
However, there should be other means of research because the whole process of animal
research remains cruel and inhumane. Animal rights activists have gathered a large amount
of information that has closed down many laboratories that violate anti-cruelty statutes.
In the past, research labs have had to be subsequently suspended due to animal cruelty.
Reports involving horrifyingly painful experiments on monkeys and the filthy laboratories
the animals must live in. Animals limited to living in tiny metal cages in which they can
barely move. From the capture of primates in the wild, to the factory-like breeding of
mice and dogs, to the confinement and isolation of cages - research is inherently cruel.
Animal research is often unnecessary, history has shown that many important medical
advances have been made by clinical research and close observations of human patients,
not animals. There are countries that don't use healthy animals to train veterinarians or
teach surgical techniques. In England they use only sick or injured animals and do most
of their work on animal cadavers. Humans can give informed consent. Monkeys and dogs
can't. Many AIDS patients have said they are willing to try out new drugs so why not let
them. In most cases the drugs will need to be tested on humans before the FDA will
approve them anyway and it is a known fact that not all drugs work the same on humans as
they do on animals. 
Most of what we do to animals we would never do to people. We understand that people have
certain rights that keep them from being experimented on by other people. What we don't
realize is that it is impossible to justify rights for humans, who are a type of animal,
and deny rights to non-human animals. Animals have a right to life just as humans have a
right to life. Human morality must expand to acknowledge and respect the rights of
non-human animals.
Bibliography
deny rights to non-human animals. Animals have a right to life just as humans have a
right to life. Human morality must expand to acknowledge and respect the rights of
non-human animals.