Discursive essay
An issue which arouses strong emotions on both sides is the use of animals in medical research. I believe that, though this may have been necessary in the past, other procedures can be developed to test drugs and in the future animals should not be used.
One reason for maintaining this is that these days living tissues can be grown in test tubes and new drugs can be tested on these. There is a wide range of non-animal research techniques that, as well as being a humane approach to science, can also be cheaper, quicker and more effective. These include cell, tissue and organ cultures; methods using chemistry, computers or imaging machines and studies using human volunteers. Almost every type of human and animal cell can be grown in culture, although the cells behave more simplistically than in the living body. Cellular systems have been central to key research into cancers, sepsis, kidney disease and AIDS, and are routinely used in chemical safety testing, vaccine production and drug development. Recently, scientists have managed to coax cells to grow in 3D structures, which can provide more realistic cell models on which to test potential therapies. This technology has already been used to grow pea-sized structures that closely resemble the human brain and 3D models of human tumours.The Embryonic Stem Cell Test (EST) is a promising cell-based alternative that can be used to find out if a chemical or drug may harm the developing foetus. Instead of forcing pregnant rats and rabbits to consume the test substance in the cruel animal test, it is applied to mouse stem cell cultures. Substances are classed as toxic if they block the development of stem cells into berating heart cells, which can be seen through a microscope. In a validation study, the test was found to be 78% accurate, with 100% accuracy at detecting very toxic chemicals, while the animal test can only detect 60% of toxicants....