• Question: What are your views on animal testing?

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Animal testing is an essential part of the drug discovery process. Without it we wouldn’t know if drugs were safe or effective before giving to people. It is unfortunate that we have to use animals for testing but we haven’t yet developed good ways for predicting toxicity of drugs. There are very specific laws regarding animal testing though and cosmetics aren’t allowed to be tested on them.

    • Photo: Lynne Thomas

      Lynne Thomas answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I think that it is a very difficult ethical question but if we do want effective treatments for diseases, we do need to run some tests on animals. I think that scientists do as much as they can to understand how their drug works before they get to the stage of testing on animals and there are strict regulations to minimise the harm.

    • Photo: Simon Redfern

      Simon Redfern answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I think that it is sometimes necessary, especially for medical research, but I understand that there are many alternative routes to testing that are being developed and used which is good, because although necessary in certain cases, it is better avoided if possible.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Unfortunately some animal testing is necessary for us to understand how the body works and whether drugs are safe or not. There are very strict rules as to when you can and can’t use animals.
      The problem is that no humans are likely to willingly submit themselves to the risk of drug testing so we have to test it on something. We wouldn’t have most drugs we have today without animal testing.

    • Photo: Phillip Manning

      Phillip Manning answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      There are many checks and balances in place to make sure that such testing only takes place when it is necessary. Maybe one day in the future we might better develop synthetic avatars to test, reducing even further the need for live animal testing.

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