Topic Background: Antibiotics, anesthetics, vaccines, insulin for diabetes, open heart surgery, kidney dialysis and transplants, treatments for asthma, leukemia and high blood pressure… these are just some of the major medical advances that have depended on the use of animals in medical research and testing. Yet, animals are not a perfect model for human disease and many animal rights organizations feel that biomedical research in animals is not necessary to make medical advances for humans.