Why I Am For It

This is one of those controversial posts that will upset a lot of people. I get that, but remember that this is my opinion on the topic. Yours might be different, and that is okay.

I am not going to lie! I love animals. I have a dog and would be seriously upset if I were to learn that somebody was using her for testing of any type of drug. However, if the testing they did on her resulted in a cure for Huntington's Disease, I think I could get over it.

There are many schools of thought about the testing of medicines on animals. One is not more right or wrong than the other. Instead, each person has to take a look at why they are for or against the idea. I am for it. Here is why: I WANT A CURE TO HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE! I want a cure so that I don't have to watch anybody else in my husband's family succumb to this dreadful disease.

Today, I want to share with you some of the pros of animal research.

Animal testing and research has helped in finding many drugs and treatments that have helped to improve health and medicine. Things like HIV drugs, insulin and numerous vaccines were found to be effective by testing on animals first. Animal testing has become vital for improving human health.

Animal testing also has helped to ensure the safety of many drugs before they are tested on humans. This has helped to find many drugs that could potentially cause harm to a human before it is ever administered to one. This has helped to save many lives as well weed out many treatments that don't work.

Alternative methods that are often proposed are not viable options. In order to determine the success of a medicine, it is has to be tested in a human or something that closely resemble a person. There is nothing that can be genetically created that resembles the makeup and composition of a person other than some of the many mammals that are used in testing.

The animal most often used for Huntington's Disease research is mice. Testing in mice has resulted in a lot of new information about how Huntington's Disease. Researchers now have a better understanding of how the disease affects the body. For example, one of the most recent things that have been learned is that there are changes to a person's blood supply before HD begins affecting the brain that change how the body reacts to the disease as it progresses through the body. Studying the affects of HD in mice has also resulted in new techniques to screen for for genes that contribute to HD as well as may other neurological disorders. They have also been able to test different options for gene silencing, too. This is an idea that if the gene that causes HD (or any other genetic disease) can be silenced so that it no longer affect the body. None of these things would have been possible by studying done on people that have passed as a result of Huntington's or on an animal that does not have many of the same characteristics of a human.

So, while I can understand that many are against testing on animals, I have to say that I am for it. If for no other reason than the testing puts us one step closer to a cure for Huntington's Disease.