Is it hypocritical to oppose animal research but use animal-tested medicines?
No it would only be hypocritical if you had a ‘cruelty-free’ alternative, but chose to use the animal tested product. Unfortunately, all new medicines undergo extensive animal testing as a regulatory requirement before they are widely used in humans. Therefore, consumer choice has effectively been taken away from us. Almost everything has been tested on animals somewhere, at some time: even water, salt and olive oil! If lack of consumer choice means we cannot avoid using medicines that have been tested on animals, it does not negate our right to oppose animal research per se. Just because animals were used to test a medicine, does not mean that its discovery or development depended upon animal experiments or that animal experiments were a useful part of the process. Nor does it mean that it is impossible in the future for drug development to be free of animal use. Animal testing cannot ensure the safety or effectiveness of a new medicine, as this is only established after it has been w
