Are animals really necessary to biomedical research?
It is unethical and illegal to experiment on humans. For example, it would be unethical to expose humans to the potential of risk without having some data from testing on another living organism. Humans are complex, therefore it is necessary to research and test on animals that are similar to humans to obtain reliable and effective results. New drugs, devices or procedures must receive legal approval from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) before being given to humans. In fact, almost every major medical advance in the last century is due to research with animals. Research on animals provides necessary information to predict how a new drug or procedure will affect a human. Such medical advancements include, prevention of measles, diphtheria, mumps, whooping cough and polio. Medications to treat mental illness, chemotherapy to treat cancer, antibiotics to treat infectious diseases, heart and cardiovascular surgery, and organ transplants are some of the additional medical benefits fro
