Animal Testing: History and Ethics

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Historical milestones due to animal testing
Cosmetic animal testing
Draize test
Lethal Dose 50
Legal and Ethical issues surrounding animal testing
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Vivisection or what is described as animal testing is an old practice. It could be dated back at a time of the primitive man, who could feed new food to some wild dogs to determine if it would be edible. Importantly, some princes utilized human guinea pigs to test whether their food was suitable for consumption (Rowan 194).

The act of animal testing is dated back to Greeks. 1n 450 BCE a Greek philosopher Alcmaeon did a vivisection and interfered with the dog’s optic nerve, which was essential for physicians to evaluate the cause of blindness in human. (Watson 11). In the third and fourth centuries BCE, Aristotle (384-322 BCE) and Erasistratus (304-258 BCE) utilized animals for their experiments (Watson 11).

In the second century Rome, Claudius Galen, a physician experimenter performed dissections on goats as well as pigs to get knowledge of muscles and nerves and thus is renowned as the father of Vivisection (Watson 11). Moreover, in the twelfth century, another Arabic physician, Avenzoar dissected animals and established animal testing experiment in testing surgical processes prior to their application to man.

Historical milestones due to animal testing

In later centuries, William Harvey, a British surgeon evaluated the circulation of blood through animal testing, whose work triggered many researchers to engage in animal vivisection. Later, Anktoni Van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), had a microscopic study on animal tissues. Several historical milestones can be attributed to animal testing (Watson 12). For instance, in 1796, Edward Jenner, an English physician got sample from a cow with cowpox infection, inherited it into a boy and a vaccine for small pox was achieved.

Moreover, Louis Pasteur a French Chemist was the initiator for anthrax, rabies, cholera vaccine using animal tests m (Athanasiou & Darzi 208). The practice established in the seventeenth century when Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher, discarded the theory of Rene Descartes, which pointed out that animals could not reason, thus lacked pain or distress. However, Bentham stated that animals have feelings and their reason is not crucial in determining ethical issues surrounding their treatment (Watson 12).

Animal testing to safeguard public heath could be dated at the time the Romans, who came up with a public health mechanism to inspect food products while protecting the aqueducts from pollutants. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, public health procedures were not systematically used up to the 19^th century. Systematic animal testing on synthetic item for safety measures established in the 20^th century when vaccines and biological therapeutic measures were being developed (Rowan 194).

In England, Cruelty to Animal Act of 1876 passage aimed at regulating animal testing where its notable that in 1921, just twenty thousand animals were utilized in biological therapeutic e.g. insulin bioassays, hormonal tests and vaccine testing. Prior to the Second World War however, 365,000 animals had been used for testing since 1921. This figure increased by 400% to over 3.5 million animals used by 1975 especially for toxicity and new drug testing (Rowan 194).

Cosmetic animal testing

Cosmetic animal testing involves using animals to test efficacy and safety of sanitary, hygienic and beauty products. On cosmetics, animal testing initiated in 1933 when a female utilized Lash Lure mascara to highlight her eye lashes. Following the act, her eyes got burnt followed by blindness and ultimate death. After then, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) passage of Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, aimed to safeguard citizens from dangerous cosmetics (Rowan 196).

Draize test

The most significant tests conducted include Draize test used in the 1940s to evaluate skin and eye products as a directive given to John Draize by FDA. It include having the sample dropped in the eyes of an animal mostly albino rabbits and monitoring the response. It may lead to swelling, shock, bleeding, convulsions, iris inflammation, blindness, paralysis, or death depending on the concentration of the sample.

Lethal Dose 50

Lethal Dose 50 (LD50) was used first by J. W. Trevan in 1927 to evaluate the effectiveness of digitalis extracts and insulin as a toxicity measure. It is incorporated through forceful feeding on several animals with the sample, till half of them die. It may involve injections, ingestion, application and fumigation. The test is crude and inhumane since animals suffer in turn (Rowan 197). Charles River Laboratories are among other breeders of test animals.

Legal and Ethical issues surrounding animal testing

Today, many cosmetic firms are utilizing animals to test their products hence triggering several legal and ethical issues surrounding the procedure. These agencies that handle humane treatment of animals include The John Hopkins Centre for the Alternatives to Animal Testing established in 1981. Since then, cosmetics firm such as the U.S Revlon and Avon stopped testing its products on animals in 1989. However, many cosmetic firms’ today still use animals for testing for the sake of public health and to evade related litigations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, utilizing animals as man’s surrogate is not only unethical but is also inaccurate and deteriorating to the environment. Therefore, alternative procedure such as cell culture, which is reliable, cheaper, and triggers no ethical or legal issues should be employed (Schmidt & Weber 89). Many animals suffer due to medical and cosmetic testing and may even die as a result. These testing for example, involves shaving fur of animal’s and applying corrosive samples on it.

Irrespective of such procedure, scientists asserts that animal testing cannot actually be relied on to safeguard human from dangerous products. These testing cause skin irritations, acute toxicity, skin sensitivity, eyes irritation, photosensitivity, mutagenicity, among other harmful effects to the animal, which is a violation of animal rights. As a result, animal testing should be banned as has been in the European Union countries such as UK and Netherlands where sale of such products is illegal

Works Cited

Athanasiou, Thanmos and Darzi, Ara. Key Topics in Surgical Research and Methodology. New York: Springer. 2009. Print.

Rowan, Andrew. Of Mice, Models, and Men: A Critical Evaluation of Animal Research. New York: SUNY Press. 1984. Print.

Schmidt, Axel and Weber, Olaf. Animal Testing in Infectiology. Basel. Switzerland: Karger Publishers. 2001. Print.

Watson, Stephanie. Animal Testing: Issues and Ethics. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. 2009. Print.

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