Animal Testing

Finding the Cure In 2012, approximately twenty-six million people have been diagnosed with type one diabetes, on top of this, another seven million are projected to have the disease but not have been diagnosed yet. In the early part of the twentieth century, they did not know much about diabetes. Many people who had the disease, quickly died due to complications. Frederick Banting, the person who created the first insulin solution, found the treatment through studying the pancreas of animals. Ironically, Banting was a known animal lover having grown up on a farm; however, he knew that it was necessary for his research. Through the use of animals, he was able to isolate the problems with the body that caused diabetes, and he formulated "insulin". You admitted that animal testing was a crucial part in creating insulin, "animal testing had produced treatment for Type 1 diabetes and it did". Treatment for diabetes was found through the successful use of animal testing. Argue what you want against the first human trials, but testing on animals discovered the medication that keeps twenty six million people alive today. Technology I feel as though your argument here is flawed. You keep referencing technology in the "years to come", but that doesn't help us with the situation we are in now. In fact in your last argument you even suggest that animal testing is necessary until future technology is developed, when you said "it's not going to take that long for technology to get upgraded and completely take away animals testing for good." Negative Effects Your right, we need to use other methods of testing before human trials; animal testing is one of these methods. Cell cultures and human tissue sampling are great new resources that have come a long way, but they are still unable to simulate the body as a whole. They are great for looking at how certain substances will react with a specific part of the body; however, the body is a complicated array of organs, which is unable to be reproduced by a single tissue or cell sample. This also goes for the computer, the computer cannot account for the body as a whole. Animals on the other hand, are built similar to humans, therefore testing on them brings forth the most promising results. Volunteering I would like to see where you found this piece of information, "people might feel safer having a drug tested on them if it was experimented on with technology and human tissues instead of having it tested on animals." Your suggesting that people would rather try drugs that are tested on inanimate, non-living things rather than knowing how that drug effected a living organism? I would like to see where you got this piece of information, because it seems impossible to me that someone would value a computer simulation for instance over testing on a living thing. Developing A database of this type would be a great tool for scientist, sadly it does not pertain to this debate. I noticed you avoided my question, so I will rewrite it to give you a second chance to answer. You mentioned a 3D model for breast cancer, do you know that many current different treatments of cancer were produced with the assistance of animal testing? I think this question is essential because many people today are alive thanks to the testing on animals that help to find treatments for many types of cancer. Unfair Treatment I really am at a loss of what to say here, I am not for animal cruelty and I really do not understand how this pertains to our debate. Our debate is about animal testing, not animal cruelty. Whether or not scientist should follow the IACUC guidelines is a completely different debate. The guidelines are set to make animal testing as humane as possible. I agree that doctors should follow these guidelines. You mention that the scientist who are performing the tests on animals do not care about the animals well being, but you are assuming there. Scientists are well educated people in society, and they understand that testing on animals is the most proficient method of testing, for this reason they test on animals, not because they do not care about animals. Banting, the person who created insulin for instance, was a known animal lover even though he tested on animals to help create insulin. VOTE PRO!!!!!!!!!!