Animal testing

The morality and usefulness of animal testing is a hotly debated issue with a lot of misinformation being offered as fact along the way.  

However, one advantage of the debate is increased accountability and oversight of researchers who use animals.  By and large, most researchers  recognize that animals should be cared for humanely and aim to provide the best care for the animals used in their research. 

Another advantage is increased resources devoted to developing effective alternatives to animal testing, like computer modeling.

“The EPA and the National Institutes of Health announced a toxicity testing agreement that will allow the EPA to use NIH Chemical Genomics Center’s high-speed, automated screening robots to test suspected toxic compounds, using cells and isolated molecular targets instead of laboratory animals, the EPA said Thursday in a release,” according to a United Press International article on Friday

This is not to say that animal testing should be abandoned altogether.  Research using animals has provided many significant medical advancements, vaccines for example. With all the recent advancements in technology, it is a good idea to consider how research using animals could be refined or replaced when practical.

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