Tests on animals: animals should not be used for scientific achievements

It is a well-known fact that animal experimentation is quite a disputable matter.

Some people claim that animal testing is necessity because it as it helps the society.
Others argue that animals should not be used in testing because it is cruel and
unnecessary.
On the one hand, there are some advantages of animal experimentation. Firstly,
research using animals has contributed to medicl benefits including development of
vaccines, antibiotics and pioneering medical procedures that save and improve the
quality of many human lives. It is necessary for treatments for cancer, Alzheimer's
and Parkinson's diseases, AIDS, trauma and many infectious and inherited diseases.
For example, the testing with dogs led to the discovering of insulin. Today this
medical drug is used in order to save the lives of diabetics. Nowadays people have
hope for surviving. A lot of ill people have already recovered.
Secondly, animal research also brought benefits to animals. Pacemakers, artificial
joints, organ transplantation are just a few of the breakthroughs made in veterinary
medicine thanks to animal research. Pets are also living longer thanks to vaccines for
rabies, hepatitis, tetanus and feline leukemia. New treatments are saving, extending,
and improving the lives of beloved pets while advanced reproductive techniques are
helping to keep and protect endangered species.
On the other hand, there are also disadvantages of experiments on animals. The first
argument is that animals are poor models for medical research and for demonstrating
the effectiveness of treatments. Their bodies are not exactly the same as our own. As a
consequence, an experiment on animals may give us the wrong result. Just as many
drugs cause side-effects in humans, many others are not effective in humans, despite
performing well in animals. It makes drug development very expensive because
companies need to recoup the costs. For instance, in the 1950-60s Thalidomide was
used to alleviate morning sickness during pregnancy. Unfortunately, thalidomide had
very adverse effects in utero. Many babies died and many babies were born with limb
defects. Thalidomide was tested in animals and it was established that sometimes
animal testing does not work.
The second argument is that animal experimentation is immoral. Researchers are
very cruel. Animals are brought to the earth the same reason we were - to live. During
research they die. We are taking the right for the life away from them by killing them
for our gain and that's just wrong. Animals are precious. They help people when they
feel badly, they help animals when they are in trouble, they teach us to love. So, we
are abusing our best friends.
To sum up, taking into consideration different opinions on this issue, I support the
practice of using animals for medical experiments on condition that scientists will
show maximum consideration for treating animals humanely.