No, it probably isn't what you think. I am for animal research. Shriek! I know. What a horrible person I must be. Just to lay it out there, no I don't think we should do things that we don't have to test on animals, or do things that needlessly hurt the animal, I believe though sometimes, animals are needed in research. I just read some stupid post someone made on a bioengineering group page I am part of on facebook saying what horrible things we are doing to animals and how PETA says we are mistreating animals. It made me mad. While I do agree it is unfortunate we use animals, I think that people really don't understand much about what goes into animal research and all you have to do to make sure the animal aren't mistreated. Seriously, I could treat you worse than an animal and no one would care ... well, at least not anyone that regulates research and I doubt PETA would care either.
People just don't get it. When our lab got funding for a small animal MRI scanner (think mice, rats, and that sort of thing) people commented that it was a shame that researchers would waste all that money on give rats MRI scans and that we should be trying to cure diseases in humans. I wish I could brand the word RETARD across those people's foreheads. What do they think we are doing? Curing mice diseases. No, we are trying to figure out how to cure diseases or problems humans have. You can't take someone's sick kid and do experiments on them.
Just some things that animal research has given us:
Vaccines for: Smallpox, Anthrax, Rabies, Polio, Tetanus, meningitis, Hepatitis B
Insulin for diabetics
Anticoagulants (keeps blood from clotting in case you don't know)
Open-heart surgery
Pacemakers
Artificial hearts
Organ transplant
Penicillin
Blood transfusions
Treatments for cancer
Asthma inhalers
implants for people with Parkinson's disease
Anesthetics
Basically every drug you take, most medical devices, everything. I wish it were possible to do without using animals, but it isn't really. Anyways, I just had to get that out of my system.
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4 comments:
I agree!! It's sad (especially when the animals are sweet dogs or cats), but it's necessary and a lot of good has come out of the research!
I love animals-- they're delicious!!
That's my favorite bumper sticker.
Couldn't agree more with what you said. Have you guys gotten any offers yet??
I just have to say, I love you Lindsey! You make me laugh - but I will say I do agree with you. :) And I loved the usage of the word "retard". Matt was telling me the other day how he thinks we need to use that word more often - to him, it is a forgotten word.
I don't think I could ever be the researcher doing the animal research (hence why my senior project involved computer modeling and not tissue engineering....) but I agree it's beneficial. My soapbox tends to be drug research - people want the new drugs now and they want them tested and safe. You can't have it all people!
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