Animal testing is certainly a contentious topic with some claiming it is unethical and calling for animal testing to end while others claim it is a necessary evil for the betterment of science and technology. Testing on any living creature to some degree will definitely have moral implications, but again the argument still stands, is it worth it to test on animals in order to better the lives of us as humans? Suppose we needed to run a preclinical trial on 100 rats on an experimental drug that could save the lives of millions of humans, however the rats may experience adverse effects. Is it ultimately worth it? I think that mostly depends on your morals as an individual and there is no true right or wrong answer per say but I would ultimately say for the betterment of mankind that animal testing is worthwhile. Institutions such as IACUC ensure that animal rights are protected during testing and they do not experience unnecessary or prolonged suffering during the trials while also reducing the amount of animals necessary for the testing. I do not personally believe animal testing can be 100% ethical, but with these measures in place it certainly leaves the animals better off and makes testing procedures more ethical than what they once were.
In terms of alternatives to animal testing, we are seeing many try to move towards alternatives to animal testing. This includes in silico models which are completely virtual clinical trials of medical devices, and of course in vitro testing on cell populations. More recently, human on a chip models have been rising in popularity in which a plastic molded microfluidic chip that contains human cells and microchannels is used to mimic organs and their functions. These chips are most exposed to medical devices, typically drugs, and the studies are conducted based off the cell interactions. I think as of now these alternative methods do not produce as good of data for pre clinical studies to move to clinical trials, but certainly are advancing and are steps to eliminating the need for animal studies. Do you think there is a drive to move away from animal testing? What do you think are the most promising new technologies that will allow us to do so?
