Animal Testing:

What is Animal Testing?

Animal testing is testing drugs on animals. It may also include testing
cosmetic products on animals. However, this was banned in Europe by the
European Unions vote in 1993. It was officially banned in Europe by 1998.
Drug Testing (scientific testing) is usually done on apes as they are the
most primitive species to us humans.
Hot Topics: Animal Rights
What Makes Animal Testing a Moral Issue?
Animal testing has become a moral issue. This is because some people
believe it is right, but others believe it is wrong. Animal right abolitionists
want to put an end to animal testing as they think it is completely wrong.
They refer to it as vivisection! However, the government and the scientific
community insist that it is essential for the development of the human
race; developing new medical cures to aid our survival.
Global Questions: Do Animals Have Rights?
What is the current legal status of this in the UK?
In the UK, scientific testing on animals is currently legal. However, the
testing of cosmetics on animals is illegal due to the European Union ban
established in 1998.
Hot Topics: Animal Rights
World Legal Status:
The current world legal status is that animal testing is legal except on
cosmetic testing as this is illegal in Europe, Israel, India and other
countries too. Views have changed about animal testing over time. For
example, people believed that is was ok to test cosmetics on animals
before selling them but now the laws have changed and made it illegal.
Cosmetic products tested on animals outside the UK were banned in the
UK altogether in 2013 they wouldnt even be sold in the UK. This ban is
still in place today. However scientific testing is currently legal.
Christian Views:
For most of history Christians ignored animal suffering. They believed that
human beings were greatly superior to animals. They taught that human
beings could treat animals as badly as they wanted to!

One main reason why Christians downgraded animals was due to the
fact that they believed that God had created animals to the disposal of
humans! Therefore, humans could use animals how they wanted to.
However, not all of Christianity believed this. Some Christians treated
animals kindly. For example:

St Antony of Padua preached to fishes.

St Francis of Assisi preached to the birds and became the most
popular pro-animal Christian figure.
Cows are protected by St Brigit.

St Columba told his monks to care for a crane.

Modern Christians generally take a much more positive attitude towards

animals. They think that any unnecessary mistreatment of animals is both
sinful and morally wrong. In the Bible, God created the Garden of Eden
where animals and humans lived peacefully alongside one another. The
Garden of Eden was Gods ideal world. Modern Christian writers say how
harming animals is wronging God as they are his creation and we are his
creations too. We should respect the creations of God. The leading modern
Christian writer on animal rights is Andrew Linzey. Linzey believes God's
love is intended "not just for human beings but for all creatures." He
teaches that Christians should treat every animal according to its living
worth, and not according to its usefulness to human beings.
Christians who do this will achieve a far greater spiritual appreciation of
the worth of creation.
Andrew Linzey derives his theories of animal rights in several ways, but
the one most often quoted involves looking at creation from God's point of
view rather than that of a humans. He believes:

The universe was created for God, not for humanity

Creation exists for God, not for humanity

God loves all creation

God put himself into creation, and died for it on the Cross

Since God cares for all creation so much, human beings should care
for all creation too

Human beings should care for animals, because they are part of
God's creation

Doing wrong to an animal is wronging God by violating his right to

have the whole of his creation respected.

The Roman Catholic view

The Papal Encyclical Evangelium Vitae recognises that animals have a
place in God's kingdom.
The Roman Catholic Ethic of Life (if fully accepted) would lead Christians
to avoid anything that brings unnecessary suffering to animals. Therefore,
they believe animal testing is wrong in ways but they believe it is right if it
saves human lives. Evidence for this is in the Church's official Catechism:
2417
God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his
own image. Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing.
They may be domesticated to help man in his work and leisure.
Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally
acceptable practice if it remains within reasonable limits and
contributes to caring for or saving human lives.
2415
The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation.
Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the
common good of past, present, and future humanity.
Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe
cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives.
Man's dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the
Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his
neighbour, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect
for the integrity of creation.

My View:
My own opinion on animal testing is that similar to that of a Roman
Catholic view. I believe this because without animal testing we would not
be alive. Without animal testing the medicines science has manufactured

would not be available to us and we would not be able to cure diseases

that are fatal to our human systems. I understand, however, that this
affects animals and many animals suffer from it but it is essential for the
survival of the human race. It is ok as long as the suffering caused to the
animals is helpful in our survival. At the end of the day people do die from
the development of these drugs as they are tested on humans later in the
overall development so animals are not the only ones who die.