Conducting experiments on animals is commonplace in the world today. This practice, according to some, is beneficial because it helps develop drugs and general products which are safer for humans to consume. Although these benefits are real, they are far less significant than the sufferings of the animals involved in the tests. It is, thus, imperative that all forms of animal testing be forbidden by law.
Performing tests on animals is advantageous to humans in different ways. From a medical standpoint. this is to guarantee that new drugs are effective and safe before they are tested on human volunteers. Any side effects that are spotted on the animal being tested can be thoroughly examined, so that the risks when taking new pharmaceuticals for humans are significantly mitigated. From the perspective of product manufacturers, this practice serves a similar purpose of safety for consumers. A new type of lipstick or a new recipe for canned porridge, for example, might all be dangerous to humans without first being tested on other species.
It is however recommended that the government should introduce a ban on conducting tests on animals. This is because doing harm to them is morally unacceptable, irrespective of the benefits humans may reap. It is understandable that in the past, employing animals as test objects was the only viable way because there were no alternatives. Now that advanced testing methods such as using artificial biological molecules are available, it is no longer necessary to perform drug and product tests on animals. This means that a strict ban on this form of tests can force pharmaceutical companies and product manufacturers to switch to modern techniques which do not employ any living creatures while still ensuring the safety of the items they produce.
In summary, due to the advent of modern biological technologies such as using engineered cells, new products and medicines can be tested for effectiveness and safety without the need of animals. This means the suffering caused to these living creatures is now much more considerable than the benefits of performing experiments on them.
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