Organs-on- a chip have been introduced which could let scientist know how new medicine would work on a person. These organ models are just the liver and heart; but the goal going forward is to make these organ models to be a finished human body system.
The last work in progress is a Parametric human that runs on computers its purpose would be to experiment on new medicine and surgeries. It would be, "a computer map of the entire body, including bones, muscles, and connective tissues. The researchers envision doctors uploading a patient's personal data into the model, and then running simulations to see how this person might respond to a drug or treatment." (Radcliffe)
These alternatives for testing animals are still being researched; in till proof that they are reliable these creatures have to be experimented on. Jo Neil, a psychopharmacology professor; runs tests on rats to learn about memory. The rats have schizophrenia and in order to find treatment for it this testing is required. Animals just like us can suffer from cancer. Researching on them has led to successful treatments in breast cancer and leukemia. Time going on in order for progress in finding more new drugs, vaccines, and medical devices animals have to be tested. Understanding it more I found a quote saying, "The FDA requires companies to conduct animals studies for many treatments before testing a product in clinical trials in people" (Radcliffe)
Despite animals often getting used in research they don't always get strong enough results, "When it comes to determining if medication is a toxic to people, animal testing is 71 percent reliable. (Radcliffe)
An example of when animal testing has failed is when six men took the TGN1412 drug; aftermath was too deadly from organ failure and brain swelling. Doctors were surprised by this reaction because when TGN1412 was given to monkeys nothing very serious happened.
(pg1, Ram)
Rebecca Rams article showed seven times animal testing was unreliable. Because of these accidents like this scientist will continue research to find alternatives that will end it for good; But a forever solution to end it all is in the far future.
Animal testing is required in some areas of science research we should do what we can to make sure they suffer less. Scientist think that is animals have less elements in a lab animal's environment there would be more correct results. But now reports have shown, "Only one in nine drugs that works in animals ever succeeds in human clinical trials, and labs often struggle to reproduce one another's results." (Grimm)
Behavioral scientist, Joseph Garner thinks that the animals' living conditions may be the problem. The idea of enriching their lives has been introduced by gifts of friends, toys, and exercise activities. There is proof from back in 1947 Donald Hebb, a psychologist discovered that when he let the rats play with his daughters and explore his house they became more educated compared to ones who stayed in the lab.(Grimm)
One argument scientist raise when suggested they should enrich animals lives is it would mess with the research and the reproducibility crisis. But work shows these creatures can experience emotions and mental illness just like people; therefore the research that is done on them can't be much good when they aren't feeling well. The portugal facility manager, Magda Joao Castelhano.
Carlos says, "The animals engage in more natural play behavior, and are better models for psychiatric disorders because they're not unnaturally depressed or anxious." (Grimm)
This report shows enriching lab animals wouldn't be such a bad thing for science and the animals' feelings. One reason people are mostly against animal testing is because people don't like that the animals receive no respect. But if it is changed opinions on animal testing may change as well. Enriching lab animals lives could be a workable solution to this heavily debated topic.
In conclusion animal testing doesn't have to be cruel if we don't want it to be and animals should have a right to be happy. Instead of being victims in science that suffer from how they live and are treated. Animals could be more like test subjects which would be used right and can have breaks. Festing and Wilkinson's article has the opinion on, "Good science and good experimental design also help to reduce the number of animals used in research as they allow scientist to gather data using the minimum number of animals required." (pg4)
If we want to continue making great discoveries in science and improving human health we should do animal testing but do it to cause less harm. Joseph Garner said, "If we want animals to tell us about stuff that's going to happen in people we need to treat them more like people."(Grimm)
