Sometimes in college, you will be required to write an argumentative essay on a variety of topics. One of these topics can be on animal testing, which, as we all know, has some defenders and opposers. Some think it is ethical while others think it is wrong to perform animal tests. Some think animal testing doesn’t really cure diseases while others think it is a necessary aspect of finding a cure for human diseases.
No matter what spectrum you fall on when it comes to animal testing, there are plenty of issues to cover here that can make a good argumentative essay
1. Is Animal Testing an Ethical Issue?
Whether animal testing is ethical or not has been a topic of hot debate since humans began experimenting on animals. This issue is still relevant today as it was back then, and will probably be for the foreseeable future, making it an excellent issue to address in your argumentative essay.
Many animal rights advocates claim that experimenting on animals is ethically wrong because animals are not just some unfeeling tools we can use for the advancement of human knowledge. Under this view, animals deserve their own special sets of rights that protect them from being caged up and experimented on. If you share this view you can write an essay that argues against animal testing, stating in detail why the practice is not ethical.
However, you might not be of the view that animal testing is always wrong and can write an essay that argues this view instead. People who view animal testing as ethical oppose subjecting animals to experimentation unnecessarily and say that animals are a great scientific resource. You can also argue that even though the animals are being experimented on, they can be treated inhumane ways, like providing them with great living conditions in the lab.
2. Should Animal Testing Be Banned?
There are plenty of reasons people say animal testing should be banned other than claiming that it is unethical. If you agree that animal testing should be banned, you can write a great essay that outlines the reasons why you think that is so. For example, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have stated some reasons on their website why animal testing should be illegal, saying it is the bad science, wasteful, and unnecessary. If you disagree with that and think it should not be banned, you can look at these arguments, explain them, interact with them and offer counter-arguments in your essay.
3. Does Animal Testing Cure Diseases?
Whether animal testing works or not is another issue that is highly debated. There are experts on both sides of the fence, allowing you to cite some great scientific studies that support whichever view you take.
Many experts who defend the view that animal testing doesn’t work often point out that animals don’t get the same diseases that humans do. They say that since animal experiments fail to recreate human diseases in animals, animal testing is fundamentally flawed. This means that animal testing can’t ultimately help us eradicate any human diseases.
On the other hand, if you are not of this view, you can also write that while animal testing doesn’t get rid of the diseases, it can offer plenty of insights prior to human trials begin. You can say that the argument that animal experiment is useless because of failure to replicate human diseases in animals is too simplistic. For example, animal testing carried out at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has led to many medical breakthroughs that have improved people’s lives, even though they haven’t cured any diseases. Animal experimentation has improved the lives of people suffering from diseases like breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, autism, and even childhood blindness.
4. Problems with Animal Testing
Whether you are for or against animal testing, we can all agree that it does have its share of issues. One of them has already been highlighted: failure to accurately replicate human diseases in animals, making the results of the experiments hard to apply to human beings. Another problem with animal testing you can talk about is the growing evidence that it is actually not better than other testing models and that researchers still use it because of tradition and not because of necessity.
Your essay can dive into issues like these and try to offer either a solution or discredit the entire practice of animal testing. But whatever your agenda is, an essay on the problems with animal testing can be very informative and engaging if the accurate information is presented.
5. Are There Alternatives to Animal Testing?
As we have seen in the previous section, people argue that animal testing is not necessary because of other forms of testing work just as well. One of the benefits of these other testing methods, they claim, is the elimination of the needless abuse of animals because of the experimentation procedures. You can write an argumentative essay on alternative testing models and explain in detail why they are better than the animal model. PETA also has a useful list of alternative testing models that researchers can use, such as in vitro testing, computer (in silico) modeling and human volunteers.
The five above-mentioned issues can make a great argumentative essay that can get you great marks. As you can see, animal testing is an area that is full of great material that offers you the chance to show your professor you can make and sustain an argument. But if writing an argumentative essay on animal testing is difficult for you, you can let someone else write you a great essay one by hiring a professional writer and seeing how it is done.
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