Animal experiments: should we reassess whether this is the best way to keep going?

Animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines and to test the safety of other products. Many of these experiments cause pain to the animals involved or reduce their quality of life in other ways. If it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer then experimenting on animals produces serious moral problems.

Many of these experiments cause pain to the animals involved or reduce their quality of life in other ways. If it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer then experimenting on animals produces serious moral problems. Animal experimenters are very aware of this ethical problem and acknowledge that experiments should be made as humane as possible. They also agree that it's wrong to use animals if alternative testing methods would produce equally valid results.

Two positions on animal experiments:

In favour of animal experiments:

Experimenting on animals is acceptable if (and only if):
suffering is minimised in all experiments
human benefits are gained which could not be obtained by using other methods

Against animal experiments:

Experimenting on animals is always unacceptable because:
it causes suffering to animals
the benefits to human beings are not proven
any benefits to human beings that animal testing does provide could be produced in other ways

Harm versus benefit:

The case for animal experiments is that they will produce such great benefits for humanity that it is morally acceptable to harm a few animals.

The equivalent case against is that the level of suffering and the number of animals involved are both so high that the benefits to humanity don't provide moral justification.

The three Rs

The three Rs are a set of principles that scientists are encouraged to follow in order to reduce the impact of research on animals.

The three Rs are: Reduction, Refinement, Replacement.

Reduction:
Reducing the number of animals used in experiments by:
Improving experimental techniques
Improving techniques of data analysis
Sharing information with other researchers

Refinement:
Refining the experiment or the way the animals are cared for so as to reduce their suffering by:
Using less invasive techniques
Better medical care
Better living conditions

Replacement:
Replacing experiments on animals with alternative techniques such as:
Experimenting on cell cultures instead of whole animals
Using computer models
Studying human volunteers
Using epidemiological studies


Animal experiments and drug safety

Scientists say that banning animal experiments would mean either

an end to testing new drugs or
using human beings for all safety tests

Animal experiments are not used to show that drugs are safe and effective in human beings - they cannot do that. Instead, they are used to help decide whether a particular drug should be tested on people.

Animal experiments eliminate some potential drugs as either ineffective or too dangerous to use on human beings. If a drug passes the animal test it's then tested on a small human group before large scale clinical trials.

More on link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/experiments_1.shtml


So. What is your stance? Where do you stand?

It's a tricky subject, and I hate the idea of animals suffering. At the same time, that has led to life-saving treatments, so I certainly wouldn't want that to stop.

I don't see why we have to test cosmetics on animals, though. Animal testing should be reserved for life-saving medicines, and stuff like cosmetics should be tested on people who get paid to do that.

I agree about the cosmetics. Still out on the rest of it though I do know it makes sense to test on animals.

Have you seen how bad the breed beagles, suffer? Google it.

Was going to mention this earlier, but I don't know why they don't just test life-saving drugs on people dying from whatever the drug is supposed to treat, and leave the animals out of it.

Ben Reilly wrote:Was going to mention this earlier, but I don't know why they don't just test life-saving drugs on people dying from whatever the drug is supposed to treat, and leave the animals out of it.

That’s food for thought...

Green from me Ben !

We should just round up all the lefties and experiment on them instead

They are basically animals anyway

smelly-bandit wrote:We should just round up all the lefties and experiment on them instead

They are basically animals anyway

So whines the mangiest disgusting animal on NewsFix..

SmellyBumBandit == spinelese gormless waste-of-space oxygen thief coward and fake soldier..

Go fuck yourself, you miserable little maggot.

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:We should just round up all the lefties and experiment on them instead

They are basically animals anyway

So whines the mangiest disgusting animal on NewsFix..

SmellyBumBandit == spinelese gormless waste-of-space oxygen thief coward and fake soldier..

Go fuck yourself, you miserable little maggot.

Don't talk crap Wolfie, if you met Smelly or even me , you'd crap yourself !

nicko wrote:Don't talk crap Wolfie, if you met Smelly or even me ,    you'd crap yourself !

wolfie needs to tell himself lies to make himself feel better about the fact that he has amounted to nothing in his life.

threatening someone online is about the most cowardly thing you can do, so yeah i wouldnt imagine he would bother either of us too much

smelly-bandit wrote:

nicko wrote:Don't talk crap Wolfie, if you met Smelly or even me ,    you'd crap yourself !

wolfie needs to tell himself lies to make himself feel better about the fact that he has amounted to nothing in his life.

threatening someone online is about the most cowardly thing you can do, so yeah i wouldnt imagine he would bother either of us too much

He didn't even threaten you, ya big girl

Ben Reilly wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:

wolfie needs to tell himself lies to make himself feel better about the fact that he has amounted to nothing in his life.

threatening someone online is about the most cowardly thing you can do, so yeah i wouldnt imagine he would bother either of us too much

He didn't even threaten you, ya big girl

"P.S. If I saw you defending Trump's constant ridiculing and joking about the disabled and the poor in real life, the way you do on here, I could smash a worthless spineless little weak fake soldier coward such yourself to a pulp on the spot.."

Sounds like a threat to me

smelly-bandit wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:

He didn't even threaten you, ya big girl

"P.S.  If I saw you defending Trump's constant ridiculing and joking about the disabled and the poor in real life, the way you do on here, I could smash a worthless spineless little weak fake soldier coward such yourself to a pulp on the spot.."

Sounds like a threat to me

That's not a "threat" you little whiner -- it's a promise...

Just be happy that that you're safely esconced over there in your mum's basement, halfway around the world..

Never worrying about ever meeting any of your critics from here, means that you don't have to bother about watching your behaviour if you ever did.

Pot, kettle ,black, just can't see it can you ?

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:


"P.S.  If I saw you defending Trump's constant ridiculing and joking about the disabled and the poor in real life, the way you do on here, I could smash a worthless spineless little weak fake soldier coward such yourself to a pulp on the spot.."

Sounds like a threat to me

That's not a "threat" you little whiner  --  it's a promise...

Just be happy that that you're safely esconced over there in your mum's basement, halfway around the world..

Never worrying about ever meeting any of your critics from here,  means that you don't have to bother about watching your behaviour if you ever did.

well this is my promise to you

if i ever did encounter you, id let you get the first hit in....................."your honour, my defence for punching a complete stranger is i didnt like his political views", not only will you get jail time, ill get loads of compo paid for by you

crack on sunshine i can take a punch.

Wow. What big boys you all are.

There really should be no need to test on animals for comestics hair products etc. When for example human skin can actually be grown in a lab. Comestic companies should be going down this avenue to test for adverse effects which would be better than using animals. As its being tested on human cells through skin grown in a lab. Also medical testing could go down this path when now organs, limbs, can be grown in a lab. Though in many cases the effects still need to be seen, within a living animal and not just said organs. Still most of the experiments on animals could be reduced

phildidge wrote:There really should be no need to test on animals for comestics hair products etc. When for example human skin can actually be grown in  a lab. Comestic companies should be going down this avenue to test for adverse effects which would be better than using animals. As its being tested on human cells through skin grown in a lab. Also medical testing could go down this path when now organs, limbs, can be grown in a lab. Though in many cases the effects still need to be seen, within a living animal and not just said organs. Still most of the experiments on animals could be reduced

Good points and something I’d not even considered!

eddie wrote:

phildidge wrote:There really should be no need to test on animals for comestics hair products etc. When for example human skin can actually be grown in  a lab. Comestic companies should be going down this avenue to test for adverse effects which would be better than using animals. As its being tested on human cells through skin grown in a lab. Also medical testing could go down this path when now organs, limbs, can be grown in a lab. Though in many cases the effects still need to be seen, within a living animal and not just said organs. Still most of the experiments on animals could be reduced

Good points and something I’d not even considered!

Same here! Yeah, of course they do that all the time, for burn victims' skin grafts.

smelly-bandit wrote:

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:


That's not a "threat" you little whiner  --  it's a promise...

Just be happy that that you're safely esconced over there in your mum's basement, halfway around the world..

Never worrying about ever meeting any of your critics from here,  means that you don't have to bother about watching your behaviour if you ever did.

well this is my promise to you

if i ever did encounter you, id let you get the first hit in....................."your honour, my defence for punching a complete stranger is i didnt like his political views",  not only will you get jail time, ill get loads of compo paid for by you

crack on sunshine i can take a punch.

Lies, lies and more lies..

Keep on bullshitting, Mary...

Your big threatening bullshit lies carry about as much credence as your bullshit lies about being a big tough British Marine..

I will never understand why the likes of nicko keep on backing and defending scumbag lying "fake soldiers" the likes of you and Stormee.

For Eddie and Ben

https://www.innov-research.com/blogs/news/lab-grown-skin-to-replace-animal-testing

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/lab-made-skin-cells-might-mean-fewer-experiments-on-animals

Stormee left Months ago you twat !

phildidge wrote:For Eddie and Ben

https://www.innov-research.com/blogs/news/lab-grown-skin-to-replace-animal-testing

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/lab-made-skin-cells-might-mean-fewer-experiments-on-animals

Wow. That is bloody great news. Let’s hope it ends unnecessary animal suffering.

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:

well this is my promise to you

if i ever did encounter you, id let you get the first hit in....................."your honour, my defence for punching a complete stranger is i didnt like his political views",  not only will you get jail time, ill get loads of compo paid for by you

crack on sunshine i can take a punch.

Lies, lies and more lies..

Keep on bullshitting,  Mary...

Your big threatening bullshit lies carry about as much credence as your bullshit lies about being a big tough British Marine..

I will never understand why the likes of nicko keep on backing and defending scumbag lying "fake soldiers" the likes of you and Stormee.

Well I will defo be able to tell you out in a crowded bar, you will be the one going round punching people.

Good God. You lot are worse than 10 year old boys.

smelly-bandit wrote:

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:


Lies, lies and more lies..

Keep on bullshitting,  Mary...

Your big threatening bullshit lies carry about as much credence as your bullshit lies about being a big tough British Marine..

I will never understand why the likes of nicko keep on backing and defending scumbag lying "fake soldiers" the likes of you and Stormee.

Well I will defo be able to tell you out in a crowded bar, you will be the one going round punching people.

More delusional rantings from poor little smelly'..

Took one-too-many blows to the head in your younger days, did you ?

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:

Well I will defo be able to tell you out in a crowded bar, you will be the one going round punching people.

More delusional rantings from poor little smelly'..

Took one-too-many blows to the head in your younger days, did you  ?

backtracking now are you??

suddenly realised you wont be doing in punching with your gammy spastic hands??