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Asked by Molsthetic to Adam, Adele, Deborah, Matt, Samantha on 13 Jun 2017. This question was also asked by amstar :).
Question: Do you agree that animal testing is wrong, or do you think it should go ahead
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Matthew Lee answered on 13 Jun 2017:
Animal testing is an essential aspect of science. Without it treatments wouldn’t be available. There are lots of ethics and regulations around animal testing to ensure that it isn’t abused
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Adam Hargreaves answered on 13 Jun 2017:
Hi Molsthetic,
That’s a huge question, with a lot of debate on both sides.
Most medicines we have come from animal research, and have to be tested on animals before they are allowed to be used in humans to make sure that they are safe. Because of that, there are life saving medicines available for humans. I agree with Matt that for some questions using animals is crucial because usually (I’ll talk a bit more about this in a minute) there is no other alternative method.
The use of animals in any type of scientific research is extremely strictly regulated (especially in the UK), any breach of these regulations and the research is shut down immediately and there can be legal action taken against anyone involved. There are a number of reasons for such restrictions, but the main one is to ensure that animals are kept and treated well.
Nowadays, any project working with animals is asked to justify their use according to the 3 R’s, which stand for the Reduction, Replacement or Refinement of the use of animals in scientific research. These are a framework to either modify existing methods or to actively develop new ones to minimise as much as possible (or avoid completely) the use of animals. Because of this there are now alternative methods which can be used for some things so animals are no longer required, but there is still a long way to go.
The website for the 3 R’s is here in case you’re interested: https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/the-3rs
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