Should animals be used for scientific research?

In addition, many critics argue that animal testing is cruel. I think that this is untrue as nearly 93% of tests on animals are under the influence on painkillers or other types of depressants to abate, if not completely eliminate the pain that these animals would feel in normal circumstances. I do agree that the remaining 7% of animal tests should include depressants to prevent animals from suffering, however, this is no reason to stop animal testing. Also, the majority of the human population eats meat products in a daily basis day, yet no one argues that this is “cruel”.

If animal testing was not used, there would be no other accurate alternative except for human testing. And, I think that it is an undeniable fact that a human life is by far more valuable than that of an animal. There are a few modern alternatives that had evolved recently to substitute animal testing, most of which depend of computers and other types of modern day technology.

The two main alternatives to animal testing include computer models and tests on plants. Computer models are not yet developed to serve their purpose accurately due to the limited information present about the human body and due to the relative low speed computers have to do calculations complex enough to render certain chemicals safe to humans; any error can lead to the loss of many lives. Plant tests are also inaccurate as the anatomical structure of plants are very different from that of humans, so plants can have different reactions to certain substances than humans, causing them to be inaccurate.

In my opinion, we still have a long way to reach the level of advancement to enable us to reach accurate alternatives for animal testing. Meanwhile, animal testing will be the main method of testing chemicals for the benefit of humans. I believe that those who oppose this argument should look at the priorities we have as human beings and concur that our wellbeing is considerably superior to that of animals of whatever species, and that, although animal testing is, to an extent, unethical, it is much better than human testing.