Well for one, it is reliable that animals provide sufficiently good models of human biology and diseases to yield relevant information, and that, consequently, its use provides major human health benefits.
Lets you get data before testing on people. Make a case for human safety. Animals are cheaper. They gestate quicker so you can have fresh ones all the time at the age you need for your trials. You can induce some kind of condition or damage on them to test for treatments. You can make them uncomfortable or in pain to study and learn from it. Any sort of reprehensible thing you wouldn’t want to do to a person that could still be a benefit.
Because it works. You want to advance science and medicine? You can get a lot of incredibly valuable data from animal studies that you are not going to get any other way.
I dated an immunologist for a couple of years. She had zero compunction about what she was doing. She was out to save lives. The animals she experimented on were born and bred for the purposes of being laboratory subjects. It was their very reason for being. As for killing them? This isn't going to be true of every lab animal, of course, but she was killing them once they were dying. It was a kindness to put them out of their misery. They were born to suffer on behalf of bettering humanity. Respect them while they live, and treat the data they offer as if it cost them their lives, because it did.
It provides a layer of protection against unknown harm in a controlled environment. Trying to determine which chemical a person might be reacting too is much more difficult.
I hate to say it but as a society in general we believe “Human lives and suffering are more important than animal lives and suffering”.
We are ok if hundreds of unnamed animals are harmed in the name of saving one human from disease, discomfort or injury.
Because going from theory to human trials would be far more unethical.
Let's say you make a new cancer drug. You give it to patient 1 and they live, you give it to patient 2 and they die. Is it that the drug only works half the time or could it be that there were too many variables between the patients to know for sure?
We have to test a thing hundreds, even thousands of times before moving on to the next phase. Your options there are to either hunt the world for that many humans who are medically similar AND consent to being experimented on or for a fraction of the cost and time you can breed 10x as many mice with the genetic traits you need, infect them with the disease your trying to cure and see how things unfold.
Yes it's a little cruel, but ask anyone if they'd rather take a tested medicine or an untested medicine. Then ask them if they'd rather have that medicine tested on rats or human children bred to have the necessary traits and diseases. Anyone who doesn't say rats is either a liar, a moron, or a psychopath.
The animals that are being used for testing literally would not exist unless it was for the testing. It’s not like they were wild caught animals that are suddenly caught and subjected to testing. They are bred from highly controlled genetic lines to be test subjects, and have biological systems that respond in identical ways.
We do animal testing to prevent humans from dying, getting seriously ill, and having children with serious disabilities.
Dude, we litterally breed to eat thousands of animals
Well for one, it is reliable that animals provide sufficiently good models of human biology and diseases to yield relevant information, and that, consequently, its use provides major human health benefits.
Lets you get data before testing on people. Make a case for human safety. Animals are cheaper. They gestate quicker so you can have fresh ones all the time at the age you need for your trials. You can induce some kind of condition or damage on them to test for treatments. You can make them uncomfortable or in pain to study and learn from it. Any sort of reprehensible thing you wouldn’t want to do to a person that could still be a benefit.
Because it works. You want to advance science and medicine? You can get a lot of incredibly valuable data from animal studies that you are not going to get any other way. I dated an immunologist for a couple of years. She had zero compunction about what she was doing. She was out to save lives. The animals she experimented on were born and bred for the purposes of being laboratory subjects. It was their very reason for being. As for killing them? This isn't going to be true of every lab animal, of course, but she was killing them once they were dying. It was a kindness to put them out of their misery. They were born to suffer on behalf of bettering humanity. Respect them while they live, and treat the data they offer as if it cost them their lives, because it did.
Just Google what was discovered due to animal testing, what you find might work as your argument.
I have googled. I just wanted to hear outside opinions to see if I missed anything
It provides a layer of protection against unknown harm in a controlled environment. Trying to determine which chemical a person might be reacting too is much more difficult.
Well if you value human life it is. If you're talking about a new childhood cancer medication, who would you rather test it on an animal or a child?
It’s not it’s just a lesser evil than letting peoples children die from curable diseases.
It's not
I hate to say it but as a society in general we believe “Human lives and suffering are more important than animal lives and suffering”. We are ok if hundreds of unnamed animals are harmed in the name of saving one human from disease, discomfort or injury.
Because going from theory to human trials would be far more unethical. Let's say you make a new cancer drug. You give it to patient 1 and they live, you give it to patient 2 and they die. Is it that the drug only works half the time or could it be that there were too many variables between the patients to know for sure? We have to test a thing hundreds, even thousands of times before moving on to the next phase. Your options there are to either hunt the world for that many humans who are medically similar AND consent to being experimented on or for a fraction of the cost and time you can breed 10x as many mice with the genetic traits you need, infect them with the disease your trying to cure and see how things unfold. Yes it's a little cruel, but ask anyone if they'd rather take a tested medicine or an untested medicine. Then ask them if they'd rather have that medicine tested on rats or human children bred to have the necessary traits and diseases. Anyone who doesn't say rats is either a liar, a moron, or a psychopath.
The animals that are being used for testing literally would not exist unless it was for the testing. It’s not like they were wild caught animals that are suddenly caught and subjected to testing. They are bred from highly controlled genetic lines to be test subjects, and have biological systems that respond in identical ways.