Animal Experimentation and Animal Rights

Richard Wellman Azusa Pacific Online University

The animal rights discussion is a very very difficult one to have for most people, and the topic itself is a very intricate one that has many sub-topics that reside within the main topic itself. However, for the purpose of a clearer and more precise essay I have chosen to focus primarily on animal testing and experimentation. "Animals have been used repeatedly throughout the history of biomedical research. Early Greek physician-scientists, such as Aristotle, (384 - 322 BC) and Erasistratus, (304 - 258 BC), performed experiments on living animals. Likewise, Galen (129 - 199 / 217 AD), a Greek physician who practiced in Rome and was a giant in the history of medicine, conducted animal experiments to advance the understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), an Arab physician in twelfth century Moorish Spain, introduced animal testing as an experimental method for testing surgical procedures before applying them to human patients."

Mice in Research for Animal Testing

English: The types of vertebrate animals used in l...

Mouse in Research for Animal Testing

(Hajar, 2011)

Animal experimentation saw a renaissance in the fifteenth century, but did not become widespread until the early 1800's. It did not take long after the widespread popularity of animal testing for people to come to the realization that animals had feelings and could most definitely feel pain, people have started debating over the issue of animal testing, and it has became a highly controversial topic and highly talked about topic. Many people argue, in particular animal rights groups such as PETA that it is downright immoral to test products of any kind on animals, while scientists believes that animal testing and experimentation has become without a doubt the only way we as people can discover many medical or other unique breakthroughs. "For example, primate...