What are some arguments in favor of testing on animals?
Here again, you can argue in terms of morality, necessity, and validity. The moral issue on this side concerns the need to protect human life and to improve the quality of life. The gains in human health and well-being outweigh the cost in animal suffering (which nonetheless should be kept to a minimum), in this viewpoint. It would be immoral to conduct such tests on humans, and so animals serve as our stand-ins for many kinds of testing and research. Those who support animal testing may care deeply about animals but don’t place them on an equal status with humans. Research on animals may be deemed necessary for a variety of reasons: to develop vaccines and treatments and cures for diseases; to ensure that new products are safe to use–that they won’t blind us, burn our skin, or even kill us (which did happen in several instances, before product safety testing was required by law); and to help students–especially prospective doctors, veterinarians, and so on–learn their way around a
