Federally funded research labs conduct thousands of experiments that rely on monkeys and other nonhuman primates — and now, Congress is ramping up its scrutiny of that science.
As part of the congressional appropriations process in the House this year, lawmakers directed both the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to produce reports detailing the ways the agency’s scientists use the thousands of nonhuman primates in their research centers.
So – animal rights activists prefer to lose loved ones, to diseases that have no cure, for simple lack of effective research specimens ?? And drag all other humans down with them ?? Some primate research is unavoidable in order to find cures for human diseases. Those activists keep forgetting that to remain on top of the food chain, certain sacrifices will always need to be made. It seems though that they would rather become extinct themselves ?
I would bet that there are many prison inmates who would be willing to undergo use as medical guinea pigs in exchange for better living conditions, sentence reductions, monetary and other compensations. I have never understood the use of animals in scientific testing nor can I see any justification for it. And if we are to be completely honest, many of these diseases are inherited and could be completely eliminated with genetic testing, counseling, and therapeutic abortion. There is nothing special or sacrosanct about homo sapiens, regardless of what today’s Elmer Gantrys wish us to think.
If Beth thinks that prisoners, who live in an inherently coercive setting, are capable of informed consent, freely given, she is sadly mistaken! We must not go back to the bad old days of using institutionalized people as research subjects. The use of animals, including nonhuman primates, eliminated the widespread use of human subjects in basic research.