Animal research and animal rights.
Well, first off I am a vegetarian. I don't like eating meat nor I do
think people should eat meat, but I don't try to persuade people not to.
They never listen. To each their own. I've been vegetarian for about
five years now.
I also don't think people should kick animals, treat them badly, etc. But
I am for animal research. I *DO* animal research. I believe in the
ethical treatement of animals. Some people may equate animal research
with simply kicking a dog but that is incorrect. We humans have the right
to freedom, right? Locking people up for years is wrong, right? But we
do, an should, lock people up for being crimicals. That is accepted.
Animal research is the same. Animal research is important to understanding
the basis of life. It often leads to information which can be applied to
humans after careful consideration and clinical testing. Certainly
something which applies to a rat is not necessarily applicable to humans.
But we need basic information. There are experiments which we do not
conduct on humans due to human rights. Besides human rights (if you want
to ignore them) we CANNOT due many experiments on humans. Many animal
models are chosen due to being basic models of systems, due to the
ease of genetic studies and crosses and many other reasons.
Anyways, that's my opinion. Oh, and I heard a good Pro Animal Research
commercial on the radio. Basically it was a doctor speaking to parents:
"Well, we think the disease your daughter has can be cured. There is a
procedure which might work, its shown to work in our computer models. But
since animal research was outlawed we have no way of knowing for sure." Hehe.
Let's face it. Animal research will never be outlawed (well, maybe in several
thousand years). The votes will fall on the general public, and the general
public will pick the life of their child over the life of an animal.
