The world as we know it has advanced through a series of changes throughout the last couple of centuries. Almost all of these advances can be traced back to technology. Technology has allowed humans to do anything they set their mind to, such as flying a plane and creating satellites. Along with the economic and educational benefits of technology have come medical advances. The advances of medicine throughout the last century can be attributed mainly to technology and the bright minds that applied it to medicine. However, the advancement of medicine and human health has not come without costs. One of these costs is that in order to discover new and more effective ways of medication, scientists have to sacrifice many animals in their testing and research. This has raised the ethical question of whether animals should or should not be used in medical research. Although there are some legitimate concerns in addressing this topic, we as humans must answer this question with an affirmative yes.
However, by saying that animals should be used in medical research, we must realize our duties and responsibilities to these animals. We must not lose sight of the overall goals of the testing and research being done, which is to find cures for diseases and illnesses and to ease pain and suffering (and that goes for all animals). Scientists must also continue to use Russell and Burch's "three R's" as a guideline for research and continue to look for newer and better alternative methods of research (Alternatives to Animal Testing). New test-tube research is a good example of the new techniques that scientists have and must continue to use instead of animals. As humans continue to gain more knowledge we must also learn from the errors of our past, and there is evidence that we have. For example, the overall number of animals being used has decreased all over the world since the last decade (BBC). The total number of experiments on animal subjects that intentionally causes pain and discomfort has also been decreased.
