Student Name
Exploratory Paper
Professor
English
26 March 2012
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Animal Experimentation
Animal experimentation plays an important role in today’s medical and pharmaceutical advances, but many question the morality of such a use of animal life. Whether one argues that testing different products and drugs on animals is necessary or not, this has become an integral part of developing products. From that Tylenol we pop to get rid of our headache to that perfect shade of pink lip gloss, animal testing is used in order to produce the simplest household items. Today, in the United States, it is federal law that requires all pharmaceuticals, food additives, cosmetics, and garden chemicals to undergo a …show more content…

Typically, after an animal is not of use in experimentation anymore, they go through a procedure known as a painless death, where the animal is dosed with anaesthetic to bring about a “humane endpoint.” Wolff argues, “at least as far as regulations go animal pain is taboo; animal death is all in a day’s work.” With this he means that a painless death is not causing any pain, which would go against the Animal Welfare because the animal is knocked out and does not feel anything; however in the end the animal is still dead.
Another common view people have is that animal testing should only be allowed when it is contributing to the improvement of quality of life, and not towards cosmetics and superficial items. Through this view animal testing is considered an integral part of medical research. Medicines determined because of animal experimentation to diseases like Polio, TB, and Small Pox are a reason why these people share this perspective of accepting animal testing. While one who hold this position does agree with animal experimentation they do not agree in the taking advantage of it for superficial items such as cosmetics. Respected educator and champion athlete, Murray Banks once said, “No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink.” His point is that it is not a necessity to kill an animal for such a shallow item as a fashionable coat when the only one who should need it is the mink itself. Cosmetics testing involve such