Research With Human Cell Cultures example essay topic

Graphic pictures of cats having holes drilled into their skulls and electrodes clamped to their heads, or monkeys strapped to chairs with their skulls cracked wide open, their eyes filled with agony and terror, are enough to upset momentarily even the most hardened person. Nevertheless, many of us have left these terrifying images out of our minds and accepted the situation, because we are told by the medical establishments and experimenters that such experiments are needed for the good and wealth-being of mankind. Such experimentation, however, are scientifically proven to be unreliable, unnecessary, and unethical; therefore, these wasteful and worthless methods should be replaced with more validating ways. Animal experiments are highly unreliable because the human's body expresses differently from the animal's on the both cellular and molecular levels (Uncaged). Consequently, many important medical advances have been delayed due to the misleading information obtained from the animals used in the researches. For example, studies on monkeys falsely indicated that poliovirus infects only the central nervous system.

This, however, falsely assumed the mechanism of the infection and caused a great delay on the development of the tissue culture methodologies critical to the discovery of a vaccine. Despite's the facts that monkey cell cultures were later used for Tran 2 the vaccine, it was the research with human cell cultures that first showed that poliovirus could be cultivated on non-neural tissue (Anderegg 2). As a result to this beguilement, the vaccine that was successfully tested on chimpazees was proven lethal toward humans. The distinction between the immune system of human and nonhuman primates overthrow ed all the experimental results. As a leading HIV / AIDS researcher, Dr. Mark Feinberg stated: " What good does it do you to test something in a monkey? You find five or six years from now that it works in a monkey, and then you test it in humans and you realise that humans behave totally differently from monkeys, so you " ve wasted five years".

Though 94.5% of nonhuman primates' genes are similar to humans, their anatomies react strangely toward foreign substances when compare to any normal human being. Nitrobenzene, for example, are toxic to humans, but not to nonhuman primates. Similarly, Carbenoxalone is tested to be safe on monkeys, but caused humans to "retain water to the point of heart failure" (Greek 4-5). Open which was tested successful on chimpazees, but killed 61 people, and caused various severe reactions to more than 3,500 people (Doctors).

In 1971, the National Cancer Act launched a "War on Cancer" that was predicted to obtain a cure by 1976; unfortunately, this multibillion dollar program was a failure. The total cancer mortality rate climbed steadily for almost two decades until 1990's, when the mortality rate started declining due to the reduction of tobacco usage. The main reason why using animals to find the cancer cure is ineffective is because of the huge differences between the humans and animals immunologic, molecular, and cellular levels. In other words, due to the fact that a human body is chemically different from other animals; therefore, it will express differently (Anderegg Tran 3 3).

For instance, in the 1971 Surgeon General's report, of the 78 Beagles that were experimented, 8 were smoke free, and the rest were forced to breath in smoke from cigarettes continuously. In 875 days, the 8 "non-smoking" dog lived, but 24 of smoking dogs died from various causes such as aspiration of food and lung fibrosis. None of which has lung cancer (Anti-tobacco). There are theoretically unlimited alternative methods that can be used to test new chemicals or substances without involving the use of brutalities on animals, and in most cases, these alternatives are much more efficient, reliable and take less time to complete (Bigelow). As a replacement for the eyes irritation, Ey tex, a new method created by In Vitro International, assesses irritation with a protein alternation system. A vegetable protein from jack bean that can mimic the cornea's reaction when exposed to foreign matter.

The greater the irritation, the more opaque the solution becomes. Similarly, skin tex which is made from a yellowish meat of the pumpkin rind, and can be used to determine the reaction of the human skin to unknown chemicals. Another way to test the toxicity of a foreign chemical toward the eyes is researchers can grow a thin layer of cells on a membrane and observe the changes in the electrical resistance to determine its dangerousness. With today's technology, computer modelling has also play an important role in medical research. Computers today can be used to predict the irritancy of new substance on the basis of what is already known about the irritancy of substances with similar chemical structures. This is called as Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship, or QSAR.

This process involves entering the known substance into the computer database, then computer will automatically try to match its molecular structure Tran 4 to the others in the data, and predicts the level of irritancy or effect of the substance (Irritancy). Using computers, scientists have also built accurate "virtual organs" such as the brain and heart to test the new treatment without harming any humans or animals (Al geo). With these new and superior ways to acquire vaccines, and test new cosmetic products, animal experimentation is becoming too unnecessary. Proponents of using animals as testing subjects have falsely mistaken that there is no better way to obtain a vaccine or a cure.

However, in reality, humans have many better options waiting for them to take. Therefore, it is ridiculous to pretend that datas obtained from other species can be safely applied to the human use, especially when those species have been machin ically raped, imprisoned, isolated, and forced feed on unnatural diet, before and during the actual testing. Experimenting on humans without their consent is considered to be unethical and immoral. This is not because humans or intelligent, or they are the dominant species. It is wrong because such researches cause great pain and suffering. There is no such rule that only humans can feel suffering and pain.

Thus, every being on earth should have the right to be free from any unnatural suffering and live freely without being retain in cages. In addition to this, humans brought the disease on themselves by not eating unhealthy food, creating nuclear waste and polluting the the natural environment of the earth; thus, we as humans should not make the innocent animals pay for our sins. For there are times when a life of an animal, on any standards, is much more valuable than a life of a human being. Animal experimentation is not only wasteful, but also futile to human needs. Regardless of similarities amongst many species, one just can not be replaced by another. Tran 5 Hence for, humans should look to more accurate and efficient methods that really accommodate their needs, rather than wasting more lives and money hastily without thinking of the consequences.

Animal experiment is just simply not the way.