Why Use Animal Testing When There Are Other Alternatives? (Post 3)

Animal testing might seem like the only option when it comes to testing products and finding cures for diseases and such, but we have advanced in technology since animal experimentation started in the late 30's. We have obviously come a long way in the scientific and medical field since then, so why are we still using this method when it is obviously inhumane? As you may know, lab animals such as mice and bunnies, do not have the same biology as we humans do. But yet scientists still continue to test products on them anyways, because they are unaware of any other options. Animal testing is considered easier in a way for them, but what these animals suffer through is not okay. Throughout the years, there has been many other ways to test different products because scientists have innovated. Not all scientists are for animal testing, and that is why most have come up with new ways to test. In the article Breakthroughs Might Mean the End of Animal Testing, it talks about a different way to test different products, and it is called silico modelling, which is just another word for computer modelling. In the article it states that “Amy Clippinger, a cellular and molecular biologist who currently works with PETA, tells Newsweek "Computer models...have saved millions of animals from suffering in toxicity testing experiments"” (Ericson 1). This is an amazing breakthrough, and it has already saved millions of animal's lives in the process. But some people say that it is not as accurate as animal testing is, but it is a better way to test and it can hopefully improve over the years so it can replace the use animals in laboratories. Silico modelling is an innovative way to see what the effects of a products can do to a human body, instead of testing it on an animal. As I said before, animals such as mice and rabbits do not have the biological structure as we humans do, therefore it is inaccurate most of the time. Other methods, such as engineering tissue samples, has become another alternative to animal testing. In Saving the Animals: New Ways to Test Products, it states that "the methods for engineering tissue samples are among the most complex of an expanding portfolio of technologies intended to eliminate or reduce animal testing" (Feder 1). If more and more scientists continue using this method rather than using animals, this means that animal testing can disappear. It is much more reliable to use this method as well because the scientists are actually using human tissue for products aimed for humans. Obviously using animal tissue is not reliable because they do not have the same tissue as we do. 

Ericson, John. "Breakthroughs Might Mean the End of Animal Testing." Newsweek 28 Mar. 2014: 1. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Feder, Barnaby J. "Saving the Animals: New Ways to Test Products." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Sept. 2007. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.