Why is animal experimentation needed?
There are many steps in developing a new medicine. The first is simply theoretical – the medicine is compared to what we know about biology, and it’s determined whether or not it has potential. The next step is to test it out in cell culture – basically add it to cells in a petri dish. Cells are complex – and while a new medicine might work in theory, it could have unintended side-effects within a system as complex as the cell. If the medicine works in cell culture, then it’s moved up to animal testing. The reason is that cells in a petri dish aren’t necessarily representative of cells inside an organism – in other words, a whole animal is even more complex than a cell, and there’s an even greater chance that the medicine could be ineffective or detrimental. If the medicine does well in animals, then it will be approved for human trials, where volunteers take the medication and the results are analyzed (though it’s a long, involved process over many years). If the medicine does well in
Basically because human experimentation is unethical and animals don’t have the rights that humans do. FYI: this isn’t entirely true. Doctors often try new medical procedures on terminally ill patients to test their effectiveness. Any medicines prescribed have to be approved first, but the doctor can use them in any fashion just so long as they believe they are doing more good than harm.
