Discussing animal testing often arouses a lot of negative emotions. As a medical student, I worked with animals in a laboratory. In my opinion, using animals in testing new drugs and procedures is unavoidable. 

Medical knowledge is improving at a fast rate, nevertheless there are still many diseases that cannot be cured with conventional medication. This leads to a constant search for new remedies. In addition, the application of new technological procedures seems to be promising. These new treatments may not have the intended effect or have dangerous side effects and this needs to be tested before they can be used on a large scale. Many new drugs and procedures are withdrawn during the testing phase and this emphasizes the importance of testing.

During my time as a medical student at the department of experimental cardiology I worked with Yorkshire pigs. As the hearts of these animals resemble human hearts, we used them to test the effect of local drug delivery on infarct size. The conditions in an animal experiment are strictly controlled and all procedures have to be approved by a national board before they can be used. The researchers not only have to make clear why this study should be performed, but also show that they use proper sedation.

Many people don’t know this and just think animal testing is cruel. Researchers should give more information to the public why and how they perform their studies in order to gain more understanding. There are also people who think that computer simulations can replace tests in animals. Unfortunately, this technique is not yet reliable enough. Simulations with existing drugs may show what we already know, but when new drugs and procedures are tested unforeseen problems cannot be anticipated by the computer system.  

In conclusion, if we want to be sure that new drugs and procedures are safe we have to continue using test animals. Using strict protocols helps to avoid unnecessary animal suffering. Researchers should provide the public with information in order to avoid misunderstanding.