The ethical debate of using animals in research Psychology Essay (Essay Sample)

The Ethical Debate on Using Animals in Research
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The Ethical Debate of Using Animals in Research
Scientific research has been the biggest contributor to human growth. In the past several hundred years only, many discoveries have been done that have made humans to optimize their ability to treat and manage infections, live a better life, fight some of the challenges they face, and even satisfy their curiosity. The use of animals in scientific and other forms of research has been at the pinnacle of this advancement. While many people, especially in the present-day, consider the use of animals in scientific research as crude, unethical, and even evil, there are proponents of the debate who hold that the use of animals in research is inevitable if humans are to advance as a species. This paper takes a comprehensive analysis of both dimensions of the debate, and uses various moral ethical theories to further understand the subject.
Animal experiments are widely used in the development of various medicines and for evaluating the safety of given products. To check the efficacy of vaccines, for instance, testing them on animals and finding the reaction is often better than trying them directly on humans. The use of animals like mice and pigs which have near-similar genomic and even physiological conditions like humans has been a feature of modern medical practice. The first argument of this debate holds that it is morally unethical to cause pain, reduce the quality of life, or cause death to animals for the sake of humans. The other dimension does not view it as a problem, and holds that the benefits accrued from such processes far outweigh the risks.
One way to look at the debate is through the harm vs. benefit question. The proponents of the debate argue that as long as such experiments produce far greater benefits for humanity unlike the consequences, then it can be justified. Simply, it is not problematic to subject a few non-human animals to some pain when conducting the experiment, observe the reaction, make conclusions, and unleash the benefits to humans. This is the same way it has been done for many years.