Animal Rights

Today, I saw a few animal rights activists protesting against research on animals. Their argument is understandable. Animals are bred for the sole purpose of experimentation, which often requires them dead. It may seem cruel to bring something into this world only to kill them a number of weeks later. Some animals are genetically engineered. Animals might have the right not to be used for experimentation.

However, I do support animal research. Like many med students, I did research on animal models as an undergraduate. It wasn't easy, and there is indeed a process of desensitization. But in understanding the nature of scientific research, I have come to terms that the use of animal models in research can be justified by the medical advances and knowledge that results from such work. Indeed, penicillin, organ transplant, and vaccines for polio represent Nobel Prize winning work that took place in mammals. There are key experiments and experimental questions that simply cannot be answered without animal work.

Yet I do acknowledge that only such questions should be addressed with animal research; if there are other methods for elucidating a problem, those should be explored. Animal lives should not be taken needlessly. And regulation is important, no matter how much scientists dislike it. Animals should receive a certain standard of care and experiments should be reviewed by independent bodies.