Is it reasonable to test drugs on animals if the cause is to help people suffering from incurable diseases?

Question

I saw an advert on TV showing a monkey in a cage. They asked whether it was right to test a drug on him. I said "No". Then they asked whether it was okay if it would help a man in a wheelchair recover from an incurable disease. It was a difficult one but I decided the answer was still no. What are your thoughts on this - is it right to swap one life for another? Do you believe that all animals are inferior to humans and that it is okay to carryout experiments on them?

Answer 1

Humans every time. End of.

Answer 2

This is a very difficult question. All animals have intelligence and can feel pain and experience emotions. Some of the testing is humane and some simply is not. If we stopped the testing on animals how would we find treatments or a cure for so many of the illnesses and diseases that affect the world. I am an animal lover and would say an easy answer is "NO" animals should not be used for testing. But then the question of "What happens then?" arises. Do we allow our population to succumb to illness and disease to protect animals? Animals are being cloned now, do we protect their rights as well? They have stem cell research do we say no to that also? It is a very vast question you asked for YA. I don't think many of us here are well enough equipped to give anything more than an emotional answer to this question. Which if that is the case then "NO", I don't "FEEL" animals should be used for testing. What I think on the other hand, is how else do we protect our society and advance in the medical treatment for our race that is suffering from disease and sickness.

Answer 3

I guess it really depends on the type of testing, it's level of requirements and how important the results are to the human clinical study phase. Some questions that need to be answered are: "Can the test being conducted be done in vitro (test tube environment) or is it crucial to have a biological host similar to Humans which brings yet one more question is the animal host going to react the same as a human in the test results and finally one must weigh the benefits vs the risks as well as the urgency. I would be inclined to approve studies that look promising in the Aids fight and look much less approving in the routine use of animals for cosmetic or some benign conditions.

Remember vaccines for what was once very fatal diseases such as Polio, diphtheria and smallpox may not have been possible without those studies and finally after that phase depending on results Human clinical trials begin some just as risky as the studies performed on non humans.

I hope this helps or gives some food for thought

Answer 4

I don't agree that humans have the right to make other animals suffer, but we do seem to be more intelligent than most and therefore I guess we will always use other animals to test out new drugs, operating procedures etc. As long as the animals in question do not suffer, and if things do go wrong, they are put down in a quick and humane manner I guess that is all we can ask. If it were not for trial and error then our medical world would be restricted to simple medications and operating procedures, don't forget that as well as providing the human race with more advanced cures, the information gained can also help Vets to improve animal care, so not a single sided only humans benefit thing.

Answer 5

To be honest, the life of an animal is less important than that of a human- anyone who thinks they disagree wd surely choose the human in a life or death situation... I disagree with animal testing for cosmetics but it shd be done to help with incurable dieases. Not only can it save so many human lives, it can also prevent future illnesses. People may say, why not use other options but animal testing really is the most reliable option- unless we use prisoners on death row? (In my opinion this shd be legalised!) Finally, I think testing shd be done in the most humane ways possible & the animal shd be kept in good conditions to shorten its suffering.

Answer 6

That's a real unfair question. But what if one of your family member is suffering an incurable disease. If you step out of yourself and put yourself in someone else's shoes is unavoidable to say yes. But if nothing like this is happenning to you or your family member it's always easy to put animal rights first, does it not. Whether right or wrong, scientists have came so far around and have been using animals for experiments for so long to help people who are suffering certain illness, and had almost been doing so well up to this point. It really is sad to have to stop something that helps us progress in medicine an technology. So sometimes it really isn't up to us at all to have to decide whether it's right or wrong to do certain things so to help others who are suffering. Same thing with stem cell research. The thing is many of these are still in experiment stages, but the outcome due to the technology we have would have been far more than what we expected. What I mean by this is that once they did the experiment to prove their theary and the theory is correct, eventually they will find ways to help people with disease by studying their experiments and coming up with far more sophisticated and less expensive ways to treat people with disease. Would that be such a crime? Would that be such a God forbidding thing to do. Suppose you're are a Christian, you may have heard of the phrases such as "if you suffer, God also suffer..... if you're sad, God is also sad...." But if you truly belive in God, what would you do? What would God do when he sees so many people who suffer not because of their own sin, but from natural cause. In this aspect, I would say God does not want us to suffer at all. If the experiment is meant to help God's children or humanity who are suffering then God would allow such expriment to take place. I'm not trying to play God here. I am trying to tell you that they are unbiased christians out there that are like myself. So My answer would be it's OK as long as it is meant to help humanity as long as it is not meant to make anyone rich. But Sometimes people just can't help making themselve rich by doing what's impossible. Good enough, no?

Answer 7

This debate will never be resolved as long as we can't really agree on what relative 'value' to assign to particular animals,so I propose a much more sensible solution: Anyone convicted of a violent crime (armed robbery, murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.) would be sent to a human testing center instead of a jail. There, they would spend the rest of their days being used as 'guinea-pigs' for all the tests currently performed on animals. The data would be more accurate & useful, the 'guinea-pigs' would be making a positive contribution, and the debate over the death sentence would no longer be relevant...

Answer 8

I'm cynical, bear with me on this.

Many people seem to hold the notion that mankind has dominion over the earth, but fail to accept that along with dominion, comes stewardship and responsibility.

If it cost the lives of 100 african people to save the last few Rhino, 1000 indian People to save the last few Tigers, or 10000 english people to save the last few foxes (etc), watch your backs, people, 'cos I'm with the animals on this.

Animal experimentation for drugs is not performed out of any altruism (particularly from the animals' point of view) - It's for profit.

Experiment on people. I'll take my turn.

Think back to that drug experiment from a few months ago in England - the drug was deemed safe to proceed to live human testing and it nearly killed six out of six human volunteers - the animal experiments were unnecessary, perhaps cruel.

Answer 9

I try to keep an open mind but when I hear some drugs are unsuitable for animals it makes me wonder after they found that what did they do .Try them on humans ? if so why didn't they do that in the first place.

Answer 10

As much as I'd like to say it is wrong, you have to consider that it could be a loved one that is being helped.......if one of my kids was incurably ill, I wouldn't care who or what was tested to find a cure for them

I did like the other answer about testing death row inmates.....

Answer 11

I don't think it's fair to treat any animal this way,as we certainly wouldn't subject ourselves to it.
I think the reason they use animals is because 1,they think they feel no pain 2,they're dumb 3, an animal can't answer back or refuse.