Lnat essay feedback

i sit my lnat next week and am cracking down on my essay technique and wondered if anyone could help give me some feedback as it would be much appreciated. It was not timed as i did it at work where i do get interupted every now and then and it is just under 600 words. Thanks in advance :smile:

"Is it ethical to use animals in medical research?"

Now more than ever, the use of animals in testing of medicine has become a crucial talking point in the world of ethics. Animal testing of medicine involves the trials of drugs and treatments being used on animals such as mice, rats and sometimes monkey. These tests are done in order to investigate the effectiveness of the medicines and any possible side effects that may some with it. I believe and will argue that the use of testing on animals in the context of medicine is ethical.

First of all, when used, animal testing in medicine allows scientists and researchers to ensure that the drugs and treatments are safe for use and work correctly. Animals are the closest beings biologically that we can test on in comparison to humans. By testing on animals it allows the researcher to check and measure the effectiveness of a treatment as well as making them aware of any side effects that have a possibility of occurring whether they are harmful or not. Animals have fairly similar biological structures to humans, with obviously some differences, and animals such as monkeys and apes which are distant relatives of the homiosape species share a lot of our biological make up meaning that testing on them is virtuallty the same as testing on us. This means that research done on these species can be generalised to human medicine. A popular opposing view to this is that because animals are not completely biologically the same as humans, medical testing should not be allowed as you cannot confirm that humans will can the same reaction from the treatment and the testing that was done on the animals would have been unnecessary harm caused and therefore classed as unethical. However a counter to this is that researchers do understand that humans are not 100% the same biologically as animals but as said before it is the closest we can get to test that there are no severe negative effects and that the treatment actually work which I believe makes it ethical. Human testing is then done after this as to test straight on to humans, in rare cases, could cause death and serious harm which leads onto my next argument.

My next argument is that most value human life over an animals. Put it this way if you were faced with the choice of saving a random human or a random animal, maybe even an animal special to you, most would choose to save the human life. Now compare this to medical testing on animals, surely with this same logic testing treatments on animals can be justified as it could poteinally help save multiple human lives. If you took a utilatarist view, surely the harm cause by the testing on animals is outweighed by the good a treatment could bring for an individual and their family. However Some may argue that hundreds maybe thousands of animals deaths cannot be justified when medical testing even if it benefits humans health. I can understand this view in certain cases maybe in extremely rare illnesses where only very few are affected but even in those circamstances I still think the testing is justifiable and ethical.

In conclusion I believe that due to the fact that medical testing on animals can be used to find treatments to save human lives as well as make sure there are no dangerous affects that it is indeed ethical and justifiable. Although harm is caused to animals my opinion is that the good it has brought when treating humans outweighs it making it ethical.