Animal world has always been the most important part of our planet. Moreover, being the part of it, human beings have very tight bonds with this world and are not able to ignore it. In the process of evolution people developed various qualities which made them different from the rest of animals. Complicated social structure led to the development of interaction between a great number of people which, in its turn, led to the creation of different tools and remedies which helped people to become the main force on the planet which was able to use all its sources and treat animals in several ways. Modern age can be characterized by the development of such issues as democracy and tolerance, that is why, in coherent society, people try to care about animals providing good conditions for their living. However, even in coherent society some problems remain. Nowadays the practice of animal testing is widely spread all over the world. Researchers prefer to use animals in their experiments in order to understand what effect a certain remedy may have on the living being. Yet, it is possible to say that having some advantages, this practice, though, can be called inhumane and even dangerous.
Researching the issue of animal testing, it is necessary to say that this practice is not new and throughout all the history of humanity, animals have been used as the main objects in different investigations and experiments. It is also obvious that these experiments helped to discover new medicines and create some new ways to heal different diseases. However, it should also be said that people have never thought about suffering which these very experiments caused to animals, taking their pain and death as the lesser evil and not appreciating their lives. However, the attitude towards animals has been changing for decades and in our times, there is a great number of people who come to the conclusion that it is impossible to continue the usage of this practice. One of the main arguments of these people is inhumane character of all experiments connected with animals (Ferdowsian & Beck, 2011). People proclaim that it is impossible to accept this practice even taking into account its main aim. There is a great number of organizations which try to abolish animal testing and make people understand cruelty and ambivalent character of this practice.
There is one more issue connected with the question of animal testing. It is the issue of similarity and difference. Sometimes, being rather similar, human and animal organisms are still different and, that is why, results of different experiments very often can be not credible and have to be analyzed and tested on people. It is obvious that for their researches scientist try to find an animal which fits the best conditions of this very experiment (Hajar, 2011). However, it is impossible to achieve total correspondence. Very often some medicines, which have already been tested on animals, can have pernicious effect on people. For this reason, according to some laws, testing on people is also needed. Due to this procedure, the whole practice of animal testing loses its sense as it necessarily should be followed by testing on people. Resting on these facts, it is possible to suppose that in the modern world, this issue obtains rather ambivalent character.
Nevertheless, one can admit that development of digital technologies provides the appearance of another possible alternative to animal testing (About Us: Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, n.d). Modern computers are powerful enough to create any model and calculate great number of data and factors. Thus, it is possible to say that computer model can be taken as the alternative to the practice of animal testing. To achieve this purpose some complicated program could be created which will be able to take into account a great number of factors which influence the work of a certain medicine or a certain remedy and give clear results. However, it is obvious, that the stage of testing on people should also be used.
Thus, it should also be said that this method is rather expensive and complicated, while traditional animal testing can provide results without some extra spending. Additionally, the fact that it is rather efficient and widely used should also be outlined. It is difficult to create absolutely new base for people to forget about the practice of animal testing.
Having analyzed the main aspects of the question of animal testing, it is possible to make a certain conclusion. One can say that that it is a rather efficient tool which helps to create new medicines or procedures which can save the life of a person. Besides, at the same time, it is rather inhumane and causes pain to animals. There are some variants which could be taken as possible substitutions to this practice, though, there are still some difficulties connected with their implementation. Nevertheless, the issue of animal testing is rather topical in the modern world and needs some further investigations for researchers to be able to replace it with some alternative variants.
Reference List
About Us: Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (n.d.). Johns Hopkins University.
Ferdowsian R., & Beck, N. (2011) Ethical and Scientific Considerations Regarding Animal Testing and Research. PLoS ONE 6(9), n. pag.
Hajar, R. (2011). Animal Testing and Medicine. Heart Views, 12(1), 42.