Is animal testing justified to save human lives?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is animal testing justified to save human lives?". Your opponent's style: Carl Sagan

THBT courts should include the victims' forgiveness as a mitigating factor in sentencing. **

You're asking about victims' forgiveness in sentencing? That's a seductive idea, but it collapses under scrutiny. Justice isn't a private transaction between victim and offender. It's a public function. A billionaire who harms the poor might extract forgiveness through intimidation or settlement. A vulnerable victim might forgive under duress. Their emotional state becomes currency, and the wealthy game the system. Also, victims aren't interchangeable. One person's forgiveness shouldn't determine punishment for identical crimes. That's arbitrary justice, not equal justice. The law exists precisely because we can't trust individual impulses to produce fairness. Sentencing must reflect the *crime's* severity, not the *victim's* feelings. Otherwise, you've replaced rule of law with a popularity contest. Why should forgiveness erase accountability?