Animal Experiments
... are tested for the following properties: - for toxicity - if they are wholesome to the skin or the mucous membrane - if they cause cancer or a change of the genotype The supporters of animal experiments give the following reasons for their opinion: In the first place they explain that the experiments serve for the protection of human life, namely when they are used to test if a medicament is effective or to control its side effects. Besides, physicians can practise new operating methods or techniques on animals before they use them on a man. Furthermore, lives can be saved by animal organs which are implanted in the human body, for example a pig’s heart. Scientists have also developed a method to produce human tissue by changing the animal’s genotype, the so-called tissue engineering, for instance you might have heard about the scientist who bred a mouse with a human ear on its back. The opponents of animal experiments criticize the cruelty of such experiments, not to mention the fact that the animals live under unreasonable conditions: they are locked in too small cages with the danger of injuring. And it also happens that animals which are under the protection of species are caught a...