The History of Medical Testing on Animals

Animal testing is a large part of today's medical field. This form of research began in early Greek society and has been in use since that time in one way or another. Although many organizations claim the practice is cruel and unnecessary, animal testing's importance in scientific and medical breakthroughs cannot be ignored.

What Is Animal Testing?

• Animal testing, or animal research, is the use of non-human animals in experiments and research. These experiments are usually done in the name of science and medicine. Throughout history, this has brought about increased understanding of issues like cancer and AIDS and has helped in the development of cures and vaccines. Labs usually use mammals and euthanize the animal after experimentation. Labs are housed inside universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies and research-specific facilities. Research consists of genetics, developmental biology, behavioral studies and biomedical research.

Benefits

• Today, many labs use rats and mice for research, rather than the more popular animals. It seems that these labs announce breakthroughs almost every week. Animal testing is used to test the safety and efficiency of drugs and medial procedures before these drugs and procedures are used on human beings.

Significance

• For all the animal trials done, only a fraction make the transition to significant human medicine. But many of them do. Frankie Trull, president of the non-profit Foundation for Biomedical Research, promoted responsible animal testing in an article via "Time" magazine. Trull states that the purpose of animal testing is to use animals as human surrogates. Medical testing on animals serves two purposes: to determine whether a new drug or procedure is safe for humans and whether it works for its intended purpose.

Resistance

• Needless to say, animal testing has been a touchy issue throughout time. Many organizations and individuals cite the cruelty, lack of ethics and even lack of necessity of animal experimentation. The Humane Society and PETA are two of the most recognizable animal rights organizations. They question the ethics involved in deliberately torturing and killing animals with drugs and procedures that many times prove to be ineffective on human beings.

Prevention/Solution

• According to the Human Society's homepage, "...animal-based toxicity studies [are] an ethically and scientifically questionable means of evaluating [effects on] human beings." This organization encourages newer, faster and more relevant forms of testing and lab studies, particularly where human biological reactions will be different than those of an animal.