Position Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Position Paper - Essay Example This paper will serve to look into the reasons as to why animal testing should not be tolerated and should be banned altogether from use in our highly advanced 21st century society of animal rights activists. According to NAVS, the reason that animals became the de-facto choice for testing of human products was really quite simple, the animal body closely resembled that of humans. For the early scientific community, that was the only criteria they needed in order to justify animal testing. The first documented use of animal experimentation dates back to the 4th century. But our modern society no longer has a need to use animal testing now that we understand the human and animal body a lot better than our ancestors ever did. Many doctors agree animal experimentation should be taken with a grain of salt, because it is outdated, inaccurate, and an unnecessary evil needing to come to an end. Fergie Woods M.D. states, â€Å"Animals tend to react differently than humans to drugs, vaccines , and experiments which can consequently be very harmful to humans’ health.† A clear example of the huge difference in results between animal and human testing can be seen in the conflicting results of Thalidomide testing during the 1960's and 1970's. Although the sedative had no visible and long term effect on the animals it was tested upon, it caused massive physical damage upon the human babies whose mother's were unlucky enough to have taken the drug during the pregnancy. Of the mothers who had taken Thalidomide, at least ten thousand children were born throughout the world with severe deformities (Woods). Then there is also the Digitalis case wherein the dogs who took the drug were found to have elevated levels of blood pressure. However, the drug did not have the same effect during human testing. Rather, the drug helped to lower the human heart rate whenever necessary. Another example of the inconsistency between human and animal reaction is digitalis, a drug whic h can be credited in saving countless cardiac patients’ lives by lowering their heart rate. When digitalis was tested on dogs, it raised their blood pressure to dangerously high levels (Woods). NAVS members point out in a study Mark Levin, Ph.D. presented results regarding the inaccuracy of animal models in drug testing. Levin found that in twenty-eight new drugs tested for liver toxicity in rats, seventeen were shown to be safe. Of the drugs cleared during testing, eight proved to be safe for human use and six were found to be toxic to humans. In another study, spanning over ten years, the FDA found out of one hundred and ninety-eight new medications developed, one hundred and two were either recalled or had side effects not predicted in animal tests (NAVS). Since the results of animal testing these days no longer confirm the same effects to be probable in humans, the need to test drugs and other medical related items on animals has become an archaic and moot point. It no lo nger serves in man's best interests. â€Å"Experimenting on animals in order to understand the drug or disease response in humans is an archaic and scientifically invalid research method†, states NAVS. Animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) argue that the cruelty animals endure during