Argue A Case Against Animals As Specimens For Scientific Experimentation

Ethics can be described as an internal control on the decisions made by an individual. It refers to the moral values and principles that guide one's behavior with respect to what might be considered right or wrong. Ethical standards are not set by law but merely guided by it and the accepted social standards that exist in a particular community or society. It is a simplistic opinion that choices are governed either by law or free choice and such a view can lead to the belief that something is ethical once it is not illegal. Animal testing is not controlled or dictated law. Therefore is it ethical? It is of my belief that a truly ethical person is one who aids all life he is capable of helping. Although it is impossible to put an end to all suffering why not stop what is possible.

Animals such as mice, rabbits, cats, dogs, pigs, horses and monkeys are used for research and testing. It is not required by law for research institutions to keep records and so the exact number of animals used in scientific experimentation has not yet been determined. However, approximately seventy million animals are blinded, maimed, scalded, genetically manipulated, force-fed chemicals or otherwise hurt or killed on an annual basis in the United States. Of this number, eighteen million warm blooded vertebrae are killed in experiments in comparison to England, in which two and a half million are killed, less than two million in Canada and approximately three quarters of a million in the Netherlands.

According to the Home Office Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain, 2001, the total number of procedures on animals has increased by four percent. In addition to this, procedures resulting in a genetic defect total 259, 898, a rise of five percent. It is important to note that the use of animals in tobacco research has declined one hundred per cent and tests for cancer-causing chemicals decreased by one hundred and nine percent. There are alternatives to animal testing and so it is feasible for more of these dramatic statistical declines to occur.

One such alternative is Eytex, which is a test tube procedure used instead of the Draize Eye Test. Another alternative is Skintex, a test tube procedure using pumpkin rind instead of skin to test irritancy. Epipack tests product substances by using cloned human tissue. Testskin uses human skin which has been grown to detect irritancy and TOPKAT is a computer program that test toxins and is used by the army, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. These alternatives are more reliable and less expensive than animal testing and there are many well known companies that do not use animals for research such as Revlon/Almay, Avon, Bath and Body Works, Estee Lauder, Christian Dior, L'Oreal, Maybelline, MAC and Victoria's Secret.

Animals that are used in scientific experiments are exploited and abused. For example in the Draize Eye Irritancy Test, liquid, flake, granule and powdered substances are dripped into the