Kori Miller 6-22-09 7:23 AM Sadly, much medical research into human health problems involves experiments on animals.

Official estimates for animal experiments globally are around 100 million experiments each year. Cats, dogs, rabbits, mice and other animals, no different to those we have as pets, are used in experiments. Animals are force-fed harmful substances, infected with lethal viruses, subjected to brain damage, heart attacks, stokes, cancers and ultimately killed. As well as causing pain and suffering, animal experiments are unreliable because of differences between humans and animals. The law recognizes that animals used in research are capable of experiencing pain suffering, lasting harm, but these animals are unable to give their consent to participate in research. The fact that animals are used to study pain, depression, anxiety, and to test painkilling drugs for human use, shows that scientists recognize that animals are capable of suffering in many ways just like humans. For some people the fact that animals can suffer and experience pain is good reason to refrain from harming them. Beyond pain, there is also evidence that animals have thoughts, intentions, and memories. This means they can be harmed by confinement, frustration, fear, isolation - experiences that are unavoidable for animals in labs and used in experiments. Some people claim that because animals dont have duties or responsibilities like humans do, they are not deserving of the same protection. However, some humans like babies and the mentally ill have no responsibilities or duties, yet they are not stripped of their rights in this way. Theyre usually considered more deserving of protection, not less. Others argue that the potential benefit to humans justifies experiments on animals. But this reasoning would also justify experiments on a

few non-consenting humans for the ultimate benefit of human society, which is clearly unethical. The scientific objections to animal experiments are based on the problem of species differences and the artificiality of the diseases induced in them, meaning that results from animal experiments may be no help at all to humans. Differences between animals and humans are a major weakness of medical research on animals. They can make results from one type of animal not relevant to another. Some of these differences are known and can be taken into account; but others, like reactions to new drugs or the function of an area of the brain, are not yet discovered. In these cases, the results from animal experiments can be seriously misleading. Doing research on animals can produce conflicting or confusing results that may or may not even be relevant to humans. This can have serious implications, like misleading researchers and delaying medical progress. In medical research animals are used to test a variety of illnesses. This usually involves artificially inducing some of the symptoms that humans have, while failing to replicate the underlying causes. Therefore, these animal models can seriously mislead. Results from animal experiments too often raise patients hopes of a cure, only to have them crushed when the promised therapy fails to work in humans.