Animal Testing for Medicine: a Deadly Practice

Johnathon Frey

Mrs. Cartier

Honors English II

May 03, 2013

Animal Testing for Medicine: A Deadly Practice

Part I- What I Want to Find Out

I need to look into more possible alternatives
What are the possible benefits/disadvantages?
Are there any new technologies out there?
I am curious to find out if there is any country in the world where animal testing is illegal
What made them come to that decision?
I believe that it would be very beneficial if I could find more cases were animal testing harmed people, instead of helped them
More research into the other side could prove beneficial to argument, so that the reader can understand the other side completely
Perhaps seeing if there are any polls that have been conducting to learn the public’s opinion on animal testing.
This would prove beneficial when seeing what people currently believe, so I can better prepare my argument

Annotated Bibliography

Part II- Annotated Bibliography

"11 Facts about Animal Testing."Do Something | Largest organization for teens and social cause. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. <

This webpage gives the reader a quick, easy way to learn about animal testing. This webpage is a good resource, and it gives me solid evidence to support my argument.

"Alternatives: Testing Without Torture." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): The animal rights organization | PETA.org. N.P., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2013. <

This website article offers the reader many different kinds of examples of animal testing alternatives. This website article is written by an extremely bias organization. Despite this, I do believe that this article will still provide solid evidence for my argument.

"Animal Welfare Act | Animal Welfare Information Center." Home | Animal Welfare Information Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2013. <

This article provides excellent information about the Animal Welfare Act. It will provide perfect background information.

Bland, Ben. "BBC News - Animal test ban favoured by a third in BBC poll." BBC - Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2013. <

The author provides great insight into many polls that have been recently conducted about public opinion on animal testing. This will provide the reader with public opinion.

Dawn, Karen. Thanking the Monkey: rethinking the way we treat animals. New York: Harper, 2008. Print.

This book gives many examples of why animal testing cannot be trusted, and what animal testing really involves. Dawn allows the reader to read the facts, and form their own opinions. This book will provide excellent insight into my topic.

"Difference Between Rat and Human Digestive System | Difference Between." Difference Between | Clarify Yourself | Know the Difference. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2013. <

This provides simple to understand information about the differences about the rats and the humans digestive system. This is a great article when proving the differences.

"EU bans great ape testing." Age [Melbourne, Australia] 10 Sept. 2010: 10. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 2 May 2013.

This article talks about how the EU (European Union) has banned the testing of great apes in animal testing. It also mentions that the European Parliament also agreed to create stricter regulations in regards to animal testing. This article was very well written and very concise. This will provide a solid example of current laws against animal testing.

"Frequently Asked Questions." Safer Medicines. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. <

This webpage gives all of the facts about how animal testing can prove deadly for humans. This webpage can be trusted; it is very well organized and is very objective. Because of this, this article will be helpful when creating my argument.

"Health Testing on Mice Is Found Misleading in Some Cases - NYTimes.com."The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2013. <

This article explains how one out of one-hundred fifty drugs tested on mice, end up a huge failure when they are tested on patients. This article was very well written, and it is very objective. This article will help me back up my claim.

Research, PIR Partners. "Animal Experimentation Is Necessary to Ensure Product Safety."Animal Experimentation. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. At Issue. Rpt. from "Product Safety Testing."PIR Partners Research. 2008.Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.

The author uses many different examples to try to explain why he believes that animal testing is needed for human safety. This article gives many examples, and is well written. This author uses too many emotional appeals for me to be able to fully trust his argument.

"Using Animals for Medical Testing Is Unethical and Unnecessary."The Ethics of Medical Testing. Ed. Tamara Thompson. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Animal Experiments: Overview."People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals[PETA]. 2011.Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.

This article describes the regulations (lack of) set by the USDA. This article will be good for continuing my research.

Part III- What I’ve learned

Animal testing can be traced to second century AD when Galen, a Roman physician, performed numerous animal experiments (“Frequently Asked Questions”). Ever since then, using animals for testing has become a very frequent practice. Millions of animals may die in tests for drugs, but millions more people may die because of the reliance on animal testing. Some tests that are performed on animals are insignificant, and would not change the world. More advances need to be made to allow for animal testing to become obsolete. It must also be taken into consideration that there are very few regulations set forward by the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture). Animal testing, in the medical world, should be banned.

“Proponents of animal testing like to boast that no lifesaving drug reached the marked without animal test. This claim is true.” (Dawn 107). It must also be taken into consideration that animal testing is not always an indicator of if it is okay for human use. For example, if penicillin was tested on guinea pigs before it was released onto the market, it might not have been released at all. Simply because penicillin kills guinea pigs. Penicillin might have saved millions of lives, without any animal testing.“The complexity of human biology makes it impossible at present to eliminate animal testing” (Research, PIR Partners). The human body is extremely complex. But just because it is, does not mean that the animals are the same. For example, rats have a special digestive system, but the humans’ is much simpler.But drugs that are tested on animals and that are released can kill.

Animal testing is not very reliable on human test subjects. In the 1960’s, a drug called thalidomide was released onto the marked. It was a drug that was administered as a sedative to pregnant women. This drug caused thousands of women to give birth to severely deformed children that were missing limbs (Dawn). A more recent example of why animal testing is not reliable was an antibody that was supposed to calm the immune system. As a result, six men died when their immune systems went into overdrive and attacked their internal organs. In testing this antibody seemed perfectly fine, macaque monkeys received 500 times as much antibody as the men received. The test that those men died from might have saved millions of lives, but the test that animals are often subjected to are not as significant (Dawn).

Insignificant tests are performed on animals with no real purpose. “Undercover video taken in 2003 in the Columbia University primate lab shows a baboon bleeding from a wound in her head where a metal pipe had been inserted in order to observe the effects of stress on her menstrual cycle” (Dawn). This test is not necessary to human survival. A quote by Bill Maher sums it up: “I don’t know anybody yet who has died from PMS, so for me that is particularly weak case to be making for the torturing of little creatures” (Dawn).

Tests that are performed on mice, rats, and other animals are unregulated. There are approximately 800 facilities that are not regulated at all by the USDA, because they only use animals that are not protected by laws. “Even animals who are covered by the law can be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, forcibly restrained, addicted to drugs, and brain damaged—no procedures or experiments ... are prohibited by law.” ("Using Animals for Medical Testing Is Unethical and Unnecessary”).In 1966 the Animal Welfare Act was passed. This is the only federal law in the U.S that regulates the treatment of animals in research. This law does not protect rodents, birds, and reptiles. This means that labs that only test on these animals do not have to provide pain relief ("11 Facts about Animal Testing”).

Scientists have created many tests to replace the need for animals. Instead of using rabbits or rats for some birth-defect testing, scientist have found a way to use cells derived from mice. Instead of using rabbits in skin corrosion studies, human skin model tests are now used. Human skin, that’s leftover from surgical procedures, and cadaver, can be used to measure the rate of a chemical penetrating the skin. (“Alternatives: Testing Without Torture”).

After many advances in science animal testing is becoming obsolete. But it is important to at least know tests done on animals do not mean that when they are used on people they will work; there are many test performed that are not necessary; and in some cases there are tests that do not need to involve animals that do. Animal testing is a deadly practice.

Works Cited

"11 Facts about Animal Testing."Do Something | Largest organization for teens and social cause. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. <

"Alternatives: Testing Without Torture." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): The animal rights organization | PETA.org. N.P., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2013. <

Dawn, Karen. Thanking the Monkey: rethinking the way we treat animals. New York: Harper, 2008. Print.

"Frequently Asked Questions." Safer Medicines. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. <

Part IV- The Journey

When the I-Search paper was just an argumentative writing I chose animal testing. This topic is very near and dear to my heart. What I did not intend was for it to become my research topic, I wanted to choose something that I knew nothing about. This was the first part of the journey, I decided to stay with animal testing because it is an important issue, which is very complex. I still had a lot to learn. There were many challenges that I had when writing this paper. There were also some positive learning experiences from writing this I-search paper.

The biggest struggle with this project was technology. Technology is wonderful, at least until your computer breaks midway through the I-Search paper. After the last major issue with my computer, I decided that it was time to get a new one. So thankfully I had printed the latest version of it before it broke, so all I had to do was retype it (my lesson for not putting EVERYTHING in my Dropbox folder). Another problem that I had was with my printer. This is a printer that works perfectly until you NEED to print something. Thankfully the library is open every morning, because of this it allowed me to print everything that I needed to. One of the problems that I had with this paper is the EOC’s. Because of the EOC testing window, I was not able to go to the library and use the CQ Researcher, which is my favorite databases. I ended up using the other databases that the library offers. The last major challenge was the lack off final due dates. When writing, or doing anything for that matter, a final due date allows me to create a plan of action. But the lack of final dates allowed me to become more flexible

The biggest happy moment that I had while writing this I-Search paper was Mrs. Cartier giving me a “nice job” on something that had to deal with writing. Writing papers has never been one of my strong suits, but this “nice job” allowed me to receive some confidence in my writing ability. Another advantage I had was that I got learn more about an issue that is important to me. The last advantage is that I was able to at least introduce the reader to this important issue.

When writing papers there are struggles, and experiences gained. The biggest struggle was technology, you love to hate it. This I-Search paper allowed me to be more flexible and be less dependable. The most positive moment I had while writing was Mrs. Cartier’s “nice job”. Overall I consider this paper to be a different kind of journey.