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I'm obviously not too versed in pain reception, so forgive my absolutely abhorent naivety on the matter, but could they not scan their brains (MRI?), and look at the activity in the known sections of the brain that respond to pain/irration stimulation?
Or do anesthetics dull the part of the brain that responds to said stimuli?
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Anaesthetics usually just intercept the neurotransmitter substance (such as acetylcholine) that transmit the action potential from one nerve to another across the synapse, preventing the impulse from the nociceptors from reaching the brain.
Unfortunately anaesthetics are often unable to be used because the extra substances could impair the validity of the test.
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Well hey, isn't that what we did to other humans 'back in the day' to find out more about medical science? If we didn't do that, we could say goodbye to life-saving influenza vaccinations and penicillin. Even simple stuff like putting a splint on a broken limb wouldn't exist if someone hadn't gone "Hey- let me do this to your wound."
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Only partially. Most early medical science relied on cadavers for study, and other research could be performed on living human. But this was a time when we were learning about the human body as a whole, when we had no idea how it worked, and obviously basic medical aid is going to develop from that quickly. However, what we do now is not 18th century medicine. There are complex systemic processes that need to be observed in life.
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Pointless animal testing is just that; pointless. And in the real world, real people with real goals simply don't have the time or money to be doing anything that has no point.
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No one does pointless research for the very reason that you said. Who would fund it? And why would anyone bother to do it when there is valuable research to do.
Some (hopefully impartial) facts I'd like to share with everyone:
- More than 2.7 million live animal experiments were authorised in Great Britain in 2002. This number has halved in the last 30 years.
- Around the world, animals are used to test products ranging from shampoo to new cancer drugs.
- EU law requires that any new drug must be tested on at least two different species of live mammal. One must be a large non-rodent.
- UK regulations are considered some of the most rigorous in the world - the Animals Act of 1986 insists that no animal experiments be conducted if there is a realistic alternative.
- Almost every medical treatment you use has been tested on animals. Animals were also used to develop anaesthetics to prevent human pain and suffering during surgery.
Vertebrates used for research:
Much more invertebrates than vertebrates are used in research, the most common being the fruit fly
Drosophila melanogaster and the transparent nematode worm
Caenorhabditis elegans, both frequently portrayed in PETA's exposure videos.
There are several types of research using live animals, including:
- Pure research, which is basic science, such as genetics, embryology, developmental biology, animal behaviour and so on. The vast majority use flies, worms, lampreys, mosquitoes and mice.
- Applied research, studies aimed to solve specific problems. This is where most medical research falls into, both for human and animal diseases and treatments.
- Xenotransplantaion falls into its own category, and also most of the others. The transplantation of cells, tissues and organs from one species to another, which may enable other research or refine xenotransplation for human use (we already transplant pig heart valves and shark corneas into humans, for example). Usually pig to primate procedures.
- Toxicology, in which the safety and harmful effects of various products and substances is examined, including pesticides, medicines, additives etc.
- Then there's the more controversial cosmetics research, which often overlaps with toxicology, and even more controversial, research performed by the military for... military stuff.
