|
Essay by Sherry Black |
I do think that saving the life of a loved one is worth some lab rats. That said, I am bothered by many misconceptions as well as ambiguities surrounding this issue. I will discuss a few.
As a human, it is a goal, and has always been and always will, to improve the standard of living. This is an instinct. We do it unconsciously. A rat is an animal that is not seen as valuable, or even desired to have around. (Why don't you go protest exterminators?) Yet, medical researchers have utilized the fact that rats and humans share physical processes, to help us in the battle against horrific human disease. This is done in conjunction with research on humans. Voluntary human research goes on all the time.
The minute you walk into a hospital you are using animal research. Medical science has been built with animal research. When you go in for an exam, or take antibiotics, or take your kids in for immunization shots, or take pain killers, or have surgery, or give birth to a premature baby that needs special care, you are taking advantage of countless medical advances brought about with animal testing. This is the reality. If you really consider what suffering we have prevented so far, and further consider what suffering we are trying to cure, I cannot see how you can put the life of a rat above a human. Without animal testing we have no hope of finding a cure for cancer, or AIDS, or Alzheimer's disease; or viruses such as ebola, with the potential to wipe us out as a species. Man does not live in harmony with mother nature, no matter how nice that would be. We live on shaky ground.
An ambiguity in this issue is, exactly what animals are you trying to save? There is no good line to draw out there in the animal kingdom besides that of humans. What about fruit fly experiments? Even plants have DNA. Many plants have larger genomes that humans. Why do we have the right to eat plants? How do you know plants don't feel pain? Plants give off distress chemicals too when they are damaged. Where do you draw the line? I suppose you also are anti-meat-eating. Why don't you start with protesting that?
Another strange thing I've noticed is the fascination with stereotaxic implantation. Readers of the Review will recognize this as "making a hole in a rat's skull." It is odd that such a mellow form of surgery receives such attention. I want to make it clear that there are no pain receptors in the brain. When humans have brain surgery, they are awake and alert, with only local anesthesia for the skin where the incisions are made. Having an electrode in the skull of a rat is painful only at the site of the incision. This does not strike me as anything worse than they would get in the wild. In fact, and surgery is better than getting eaten alive piece by piece by a cat.
Technology is very far from eliminating the need for animal research. Computer models for animal processes are being developed all over the globe, but they are not reliable yet. Consider the computer models that are hard at work at forecasting the weather. Outcomes of many different computer models are considered that at one time to predict the weather. Do you trust them? Would you put your life at stake?
At Oberlin College, science faculty and students take great care to minimize whatever suffering a rat may experience. We are also under strict regulations for animal use by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and respect and abide these regulations. We also respect our lab rats, and talk to them and play with them and name them. I do not think they have such a bad life.
The neuroscience 211 lab gives students the experience of neuroscience research. Animal testing is very much a part of this research, and should rightfully be included. It is precisely for those students in the lab who do not feel they will benefit from such experience that the actual surgery is optional. Those other students should be made aware first-hand, however, what goes on in a lab where animal testing takes place, whether or not they ever want to do such experimentation.
In my career I will use animals. I will help my loved ones to have a better life, and lessen the pain of those suffering in hospitals, away from all this discussion, wanting to be cured.
Sherry Black is a College junior.
Related Stories:
