Some people claim that it is acceptable to use animals in medical research for the benefit of human beings, while others argue that it is wrong. Discuss both views and give your opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Directed medical studies designed to test the effect of medications or treatments are necessary to measure the ability to use them in humans. However, methods that are used for conducting medical research cause a lot of ethical controversies if animal testing is deemed acceptable. In my opinion, animal testing should be avoided if possible because it is cruel, but there are some occasions when there is no way to not do it. First of all, it should be clear what type of research is provided. For instance, pharmaceutical researchers must do tests on animals. It is not a secret that there is a huge number of life-threatening diseases which could be treated by drugs only. Another key point is the lack of alternatives to animal testing. For example, horseshoe crab blood is utilised for testing new vaccines for bacterial contamination and scientists have been unable to create any equal synthetic tests. On the other hand, some systematic reviews showed that some medications work in different ways in animal and human bodies. In that case, effects can be different and may not be reproducible in clinical trials. There is also another, philosophical question, about animal consciousness. A large number of scientists agree that humans are not the only conscious creatures and that other mammals, birds and octopuses could be conscious as well. These findings are connected with the development of neuroscience. For this reason, our smaller brothers must have their own moral rights and protection from using them for experiments. However, this point of view is still controversial and other researchers argue that animal has desires and beliefs. In conclusion, I strongly believe that animal testing should be limited as much as possible because we have a responsibility to our smaller brothers. In my opinion, the problem of animal consciousness and searching for alternatives for animal testing requires further study.