Do animals deserve the natural rights that humans enjoy? Animals are held captive in scientific laboratories to test many things. In research laboratories they are used to test many mundane products and are used in valuable medical research. Many animal rights activists go so far as to break the law in an attempt to raise awareness of animal welfare issues in scientific laboratories. Animal welfare should be taken into account in experiments, even if they represent a substantial benefit for medical research, there should still be strict rules applied to stop unnecessary pain and suffering of animals. There are many animal rights activist groups calling for the life of an animal to be considered as valuable as the life of a human being. Having defined “natural rights” for animals would mean imprisoning and prosecuting animals who break the law, realistically this is not a defensible philosophy. According to Lee and Ames, natural rights for animals are an “imperfect philosophy” that contradicts itself. The concept of natural rights for animals would jeopardize all medical research. Laboratory animals are used primarily for biomedical research, education, and product safety testing. Saraf and Kumarawamy note that almost all medical breakthroughs in this century have depended in some way on the use of animals (6). Animal experiments have provided the knowledge necessary to understand and develop more effective treatments, but “opposition to the use of animals for research purposes has always existed” (Saraf and Kurmarawamy 8). Rabbits were used in the early 1920s as pregnancy tests, because high levels of hCG when injected into a female rabbit caused death, this experiment contributed to the development of home pregnancy tests which are...... half of the card. .....normal behavior, freedom from fear and anxiety. Works Cited “Animal Testing: The Facts.” BBC News. BBC, 2013. Web. 17 November 2013.Favre, David. “Overview of U.S. Animal Welfare Law.” Animallaw.info. Michigan State University College of Law, May-June 2002. Web. November 11, 2013. Lee, M. Cushmaan, C. Ames. “Counterpoint: Animals Have No Rights.” Point of View: Animal Rights (2013): 3. Point of View Reference Center. Network. November 11, 2013. Ranganatha, N. and I. J. Kuppast. “A review on alternatives to animal testing methods in drug development.” International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 4. (2012): 28-32. Academic research completed. Network. November 17, 2013. Saraf, Shyam K., and Vinay Kumarawamy. “Basic Research: Problems with Animal Testing.” Indian Journal of Orthopedics 47.1 (2013): 6-9. Academic research completed. Network. November 17. 2013.