A Cold Shoulder : Misplaced Sentimentality
Modern medicine probably has contributed more to the practical liberation of mankind than all political ideologies and economic systems combined. No other form of human endeavor has done as much to eliminate suffering, degradation and grief from our daily lives.
One of the many traumas inflicted by the AIDS epidemic is the grim reminder of what life was like in all the long centuries through which disease, mysterious and merciless, rampaged at will.
These simple observations ought to be self-evident. We repeat them because the nation’s medical researchers currently are enduring the annual week of siege imposed by so-called animal rights activists, who believe that all experiments involving live animals ought to be stopped.
These eccentric demands should not to be confused with the serious concerns of responsible animal welfare advocates. In recent years the latter have done much to remind scientists of how important it is to police the small minority of researchers who sometimes have taken an insensitive or overly casual approach to experimentation on animals.
In fact, if their consequences were not so serious,the actions of the animals rights cranks could be ignored for what they are, self-righteous tantrums masquerading as appeals to conscience. However, because those involved are willing to engage in illegal disruption and even burglary, their campaign already has forced a diversion of attention and resources our medical laboratories can ill afford.
Research on non-human species is an unfortunate, but indispensable part of valid medical science. Though zealots may claim otherwise, no tissue culture or computer simulation can take the place of a complex living organism in determining the usefulness and, more important, the safety of new drugs and medical technologies.
At the root of this silly controversy there is, indeed, cruelty and callousness. It does not, however, occur in our medical laboratories, but in minds so self-absorbed and vulgar that they are able to equate the suffering of mice with that of dying children.
Behind the animals rights movement is a misplaced sentimentality pretending to be compassion. It should exert no claim on any conscience capable of mature and sober reflection.
