ESSAY

Student’s Id

Instructor

Course

Date

Medical research on animals should be forbidden by law

For a long time, animals have been used in medical research. This is because animals and human beings often suffer from similar diseases and these animals are used to come up with a cure or vaccine for a certain disease. Most of these animals are bred for this purpose and it’s only on rare cases that these animals are sourced from their natural habitats to be used for research. Medical research on animals has helped bridge a very huge gap. Medical research on animals should not be banned by law.

The use of animals in research has enabled medical researchers to discover cures and vaccines for various medical conditions. The polio vaccine was discovered through medical research carried out on a monkey. This discovery has been of great help to the medical team and human beings at large. This research was made possible by the fact that human beings and monkeys have a lot in common in terms of immunity and the types of diseases that attack them. The poliovirus had the same effect on the monkey as on human beings. Therefore what vaccine worked for the monkey would work also for human beings. This is how the polio vaccine was discovered (Vogel and Friedhelm, 9).

In some cases, it is not possible to isolate animals in medical research concerning human beings. The ongoing research on the cure for HIV/AIDS has been facilitated by the use of animals in research. The virus is similar to the one in monkeys and researchers have been working with the virus in monkeys with the hope of developing a vaccine for this disease. If this research becomes successful, a cure for one of the most dangerous diseases in the world will have been found. This will be a major scientific invention that will be credited to medical research on animals (Friedman et al, 352).

The use of animals in medical research led to major medical inventions like skin and organ treatment. This knowledge was acquired through experimentation using animals and for a long time, it has provided solutions for human problems. Skin transplant has made it possible to treat patients with severe burns and helped restore their self-confidence. Organ transplant, on the other hand, has helped save thousands of lives. People with organ failure do not have to die as long as they can get a donation. They can be able to live a normal life after transplant. Transplant is now being done for almost everybody organ including the heart and the bone marrow (Giwa et al, 530).

Medical research on animals has led to the discovery of immunology. This is the transfer of tissues from the stronger party to the weaker one. This has been so practical especially with twins where one is born weak. It has been used in both human beings and animals with desirable results in both cases. This procedure helps boost the immunity of the weaker party by using the strong immune tissues of the stronger party. This experiment was first carried out with mice and the discovery has had numerous medical benefits to both human beings and animals (Masopust et al, 385).

Animals have been used in discoveries relating to the cardiovascular-renal system (Klein et al, 540). Through this research, discoveries of how such things as hypertension come about have been made. This has helped save so many lives. Hypertension is a common occurrence during surgery and if not controlled it can lead to death. The study of the cardiovascular renal system was first carried out on a dog. This way, medical researchers were able to know how hypertension comes about and how it can be controlled. This has not only provided relief for patients with hypertension but is also a relief in operation rooms where hypertension is a major occurrence.

So many medical discoveries have been made possible by the use of animals in medical research. These researches are always aimed at discovering something medically helpful to both the animals and human beings and are not aimed at inflicting pain on the animal for no reason. If the use of animals in medical research is encouraged, it could lead to many more important discoveries.

Works Cited