Animal experimentation, which first started its origins in Greece, has been around in the world for a long time. One of the oldest examples of this was in 500BC, when a philosopher called Alcmaeon of Croton showed the function of the optic nerve by cutting through the optic nerves of live animals, which then resulted in them going blind [9]. Today, we take using animals, such as primates, in experiments for granted. In Europe, 10,000 experiments are carried out on primates, whereas in the USA alone, 60,000 experiments on primates occur [10]. This testing on primates provides people with new medicines and vaccines, which are then used to cure people, or even save lives. So, surely testing on primates can only be a good thing, since without them life expectancy in the world may not be as high as it is today and instead many humans could die? Recently, there has been news about how dolphins are being classified as non-human persons by scientists, due to the great features they possess, and it is leading to them not being in captivity. So, it may lead people to believe, that if primates also possess these qualities, surely making them endure experimentation is wrong [17]. I feel that it would be interesting to try and tackle this question, because it may help people in the world decide finally whether actually primates should be used as it is hugely debated thing in the world. My main objective of this article is to try and decide whether primates should be used and, if not, what the alternatives are. I chose this topic as I found it fascinating as well as important, since today many NHP’s (Non-Human Primates) are forced into enduring experiments which can sometimes be cruel and I personally felt, as if it would be interesting to find out whether or not the fact that primates create medicine that saves people’s lives outweighs the fact that it goes against what many primates free will. Not only this but I also felt, that studying this would help me to build on my current interest of science, as well as focus on the ethics side of the question and find out how medicine is actually fully developed before it goes on to animal testing. I have also tried to explore if scientists are trying to exploit other alternatives, which could help to reduce the amount of primates used for experimental testing significantly.
