Experimentation on animals has sparked off debate in the society on whether or not it should be outlawed. The opponents of animal testing argue that it is inherently and morally bad. Others, on the other hand, highlights the salience on scientific discovery from animal experiments. In this essay, I will provide my opinions on the issue and the reasoning behind it.
I believe that the experimentation on animals can be justified on moral grounds. Firstly, if one has to sympathize with the suffering of animals, it’s still far from consequential compared the risk to human lives in case something goes wrong in the experimentation. Indeed, there the critics of animal experimentation have a point on animal suffering. However, it is not as if the scientist are self-indulged and take pleasure in seeing the animal sufffering. Instead, they do what they have to do for the betterment of humanity. Discoveries in medicine have benefited many people in the world, and that would not have happened if it was not through animal testing.
The second reason why I lean more with the proponents of animal testing is that there is no other objects of experiments that are similar to human characteristics. Experiments on other living creature like plants will not do it. The simulation from the technology and computers can only provide us with models and predictions which might lead to different result when applied to human. Therefore, we are left with animals which has the human characteristics, and the experiments on them most of the time can be a beneficial information on its efficacy when applied to human.
In conclusion, I believe that animal testing, though seems morally wrong, is still the viable option and morally justified