Animal Testing

Both Singer and Donovan addressed the issue of experimental testing on animals, but I felt that both authors sort of danced around the issue without getting to the heart of it(at least in the excerpts we read). Both authors acknowledged that animal testing is often done cruelly and is not always necessary, but there must be some things that we need to test on animals. I understand that essentially torturing an animal just to see what happens is wrong and needs to end. However, what about the cases where animal testing really does help save many human lives? While these circumstances may not be as common as we would like to believe, don't they still happen sometimes? Most people would probably agree that it is unethical to experiment on an animal if it is not necessary, or if it is done cruelly, but is it unethical to test on animals otherwise? Alex said in class that every FDA-approved drug must be tested on animals (correct me if I am remembering this fact wrong). In that case, there are many important drugs that must have been tested on animals. Is it ethic to test on animals if it is for a good cause and isn't done cruelly? Is it even possible to test on animals without cruelty?