Po Yi Yan (Terri) Using Animals for Lab Testing

Medical technology has become more and more advanced nowadays. New medicines and treatments are constantly invented and many people benefit from these inventions. The treatments for cancers have especially improved a lot. Scientists and researchers must do a lot of tests to actually prove the inventions before they are promoted to the public. They must not make any mistakes because the effects may be very serious. The most common way to examine the effectiveness of the new medicines and vaccines for cancers is using animals for laboratory testing. This means they must cause the animals to have cancers first, and then try to find out the treatments for them. Many people think this behavior is not humane because of animals’ rights. This topic is very troublesome and both sides have their strong opinions.

Mice like this one are used for lab testing of toxic chemicals.

Some people think using animals for cancerous laboratory testing is necessary for human because it helps to save human lives. Many scientists and researcher work very hard everyday to advance the new drugs for the patients who have cancers. They have to ensure that the new drugs are safe and effective. Although the computer technology is very advanced nowadays, the evaluations from the computers are sometimes not exact and detailed. Therefore, they must use the animals for testing. It’s because the animals’ body structures and reactions are similar to humans’. They can directly obtain the information from the animals. Besides, cancerous patients also think it’s necessary because they want to recover. They want to have longer lives. Certainly, their family members have the same opinions because they don’t want their relatives to leave them and both don’t want to experience anguish. This is understandable.

On the other hand, some people think using animals for cancerous laboratory testing is brutal. In their opinions, animals also have lives, thoughts, and feelings. They have rights to have longer lives, too! However, they are hurt just because they are unable to resist. Besides, the animals cannot understand why the people would treat them like this. They don’t know the danger becomes closer and closer to them probably when they are put on the test table, or they even never know anything until they have died. Besides, they also feel pain. The cancerous cells which have been caused by people might occasionally cause them extreme pain. They may not experience this if the scientists or researches didn’t use them for testing. Therefore, many people are against this behavior because they think animals must not be hurt intentionally.

Finding what is right or wrong can be really difficult. Using animals for cancerous laboratory testing may be brutal, but many people or even animals are benefit from it actually. Sometimes I think it’s not right to use animals for testing. Whenever I imagine the situation that the animals are being tested, I feel very uncomfortable. However, when I think about the cancerous patients and their family members at the same time, I feel much better. Also, I appreciate all the scientists and researchers are trying their best to find out the medical skills for cancers without intermission.

Graphic: By Peter Aldhous, Andy Coghlan, Jon Copley.
http://www.newscientist.com May 22, 1999

April 2003