Progress in medicine depends on how well we understand basic biology. Knowing how complicated systems work normally in animals is the first step in finding out what happens when something goes wrong. The understanding of the basic biology guides the scientists who develop improved treatment for diseases.
Animal research is just as important in the development of medicines to treat animals. Many of the illnesses suffered by people and animals are the same such as cancer, flu and malaria. Over one third of veterinary medicines are the same as those used for humans.
Some animal rights supporters believe that the results of animal research con not be applied to humans. Doctors and medical researchers throughout the world have show many times that this belief is wrong and that animal researching is important for progress in medical science.
Animals are very expensive compared to test-tube methods, so researchers always prefer not to use animals. In fact around 95p out of every pound spent on medical research in Britain goes on non-animal methods.
Such test-tube methods alone could not develop new surgical methods of techniques for intensive care. Without animal testing surgical operations today would not be as scientifically refined as they are.
In practice, animal research, test-tube methods, computer technology and human studies, are used together to tackle difficult medical problems. Medical advances for both people and animals will depend on medical research that includes some careful, humane use of animals.
This information The Biomedical Research Education Trust gives helps me answer two of my subsidiary questions. Are the costs of products affected by animal testing? & What are the alternatives to animal testing.
The answer the first subsidiary question I mentioned above is that the cost of products is not affected by animal testing this is because firstly out of every pound spent on medical research only around 5p is spent on animal testing. Secondly the majority of medical researching done will be on products that are either given on prescription or through chemists this means that the product will most likely have been funded through government spending on medication.
The answer to my second question mentioned above is that there are only really two alternatives, which are test-tube testing and complex computer models. The computer models are still only used for basic experiments because we still lack the programming technology to write a programme complex enough to give out accurate results. Test-tube methods are widely used because they only require a few cells to give results these are widely used more than animals but even so they have to use animals because you can only see from real life models exactly what is happening.
