Should animals be used for scientific testing?
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It is estimated that about 26 million animals each year are used for scientific and commercial testing in the United States alone. Animals are used for developing medical treatments, determining toxicity of certain produce, checking safety of materials destined for human use or other biomedical, commercial or health care uses. Proponents say that it allowed for the development of life-saving treatments for both humans and animals and that there are no alternatives for adequately researching complete living organisms. Opponents on the other hand say that it is cruel and inhumane and that alternatives are present to replace animal testing. Also the difference between animals and humans would lead to incomparable results.
There are already strict regulations regarding animal testing
The animal welfare act does not cover rats, mice, fish or birds but these make up about 95% of all animals used in research (source)
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Results from animal tests are not always representative for humans.
It is nevertheless an essential step between theoretic research and human trials.
Animal testing allowed for sometimes life-saving treatments.
There is no alternative for testing certain methods on an entire organic system.
Animal testing is cruel and inhumane.
No. It is not ethical.
The failure of clinical trial results to translate into successful drug therapies suggests that the suffering we inflict on animals does not yield enough information to warrant animal experimentation. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2017.00478/full
The argument that animal welfare guidelines exist is empty--there are whole classes of animals left out of the regulations https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/201609/the-animal-welfare-act-claims-rats-and-mice-are-not-animals and https://academic.oup.com/ilarjournal/article/57/3/285/3796586
Powerful lobbies exist that promote animal experimentation. This is a multi billion dollar industry. In includes not only the breeders and providers of research subjects, but also the institutions that carry on research and are subsidized in their activities. https://www.navs.org/the-issues/the-animal-testing-and-experimentation-industry/
While not everyone will agree that animals are sentient, this is a level of understanding that is evolving. http://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-science-says-about-animal-sentience-88047
Hi @agmoore! great to see you here. Very solid points you have there! I'm glad you stumbled upon @debato, It's a new platform for hosting discussions like this. To view the full structure of the discussion, check out https://debato.org/html/discussion?a=debato&p=should-animals-be-used-for-scientific-testing-trlxh . New discussions will automatically direct readers to the platform but this was only implemented after this example discussion was posted. Let me know what you think of it! 😃
introduction can be found here:
https://steempeak.com/utopian-io/@debato/debato-a-platform-for-structuring-online-debates
Hi @samve. Stumble, indeed! I am as passionate about this issue as you are about climate. I try to remain calm :) as I raise issues, but for me it is such a clear case of suffering vs. not suffering. Plus, I think, it damages the researchers who inure themselves to the pain of countless animals in service of a goal. It can't be good for the psyche to close your eyes on a constant basis to the suffering of any creature--even a spider or fly.
Anyway, great opportunity here to ask someone I trust about Steemconnect. I'm afraid to use this function because I have to supply one of my keys. Is that secure? And yet, if I don't, so many aps (or whatever you call them) are closed to me here. So, if you tell me it's safe, I will believe. Because I do trust you. And please advise me on how to proceed. I love the blockchain, but the technical aspects of it are confusing to me sometimes.
Just as passionate? Than this post must have definitely triggered something! The aspect of the researchers themselves is indeed something I did not even think about...
Ah SteemConnect. It can indeed be daunting to type in your private key, but SteemConnect has been designed to eliminate exactly that. Steemconnect can, in your place, give third party apps a temporary token that is different from your private keys. With this token, apps can then perform operations such as upvoting, commenting, creating posts etc. This token expires after a certain time and can also be revoked at any moment with the steemconnect app. So in this way SteemConnect is a gateway to almost any application on the blockchain without giving each app your private key to perform the needed operations.
So in this example, debato sends you to the site of SteemConnect where you can authorize the app, and when complete, debato gets an authorization token from SteemConnect (when logging in you can also see what that token can be used for, upvoting, commenting etc.). Then you can use the app to perform operations in your name without ever giving your private keys to that app.
It's a pretty established feature and open source so I do tend to trust it :)
Thank you for that explanation. I will go boldly forth (slowly forth) and sign up for Steemconnect. So much I am cut off from because of my reluctance. I appreciate that you took the time to walk me through it.
As for passion about animal experimentation--it is not new-found. An essay I wrote for a blog (since inactive) in 2013 kind of shows the interest I have had for a long time. You don't have to read the blog--just adding it for your interest. Leave My Beagle Alone
ps. Most arguments are currently filled in by @debato itself to provide some initial content ;)
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