YJA Convention 2002 07 NJ Fifth

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

Page 28

Animal Experimentation: The Scientific Way Dr. Ray Greek
s students in veterinary and medical school, my experimentation lobby spends millions annually to
treated the same diseases in animals and humans. Some medications that caused birth defects in humans could be given to animals with impunity and vice-versa. In light of these differences between humans and animals, we began to question how animal experimentation could ever hope to cure human disease.
due to animal experimentation. In fact, individuals with vested interest in animal experimentation have admitted to the fallacy of animal experimentation, even while making their livelihood from it
We became alarmed when we realized that slight differences between animals and humans in anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology make the application of the results of experiments on animal dangerous when extrapolated to humans. The money wasted on animal experimentation disgusted us. Our disgust changed to horror as we learned that wasted money was the smallest transgression; humans were actually being harmed when their physicians tried to apply what they had learned in the lab to their patients.
Smoking was thought safe because it caused no cancers in animals. A high fat, high cholesterol diet was also thought safe based on animal models. The cardiopulmonary bypass machine, the heart-lung machine used to keep patients alive during heart operation, killed human patients when first used even though it tested well on dogs. The animal
notes:
Jain Education International 2010 03
The great advances in science that have given us the high standard of medical care we enjoy today have come from clinical observation, in vitro research, epidemiology. autopsies, computer and mathematical modelling, technology, human tissue research, genetics, postmarketing drug surveillance, the specialization of medical care including the specialization of physicians, nurses, and areas of the hospital. It is time the public knew that not only is that an expensive fallacy to believe that the cures for human disease will be found in animals, but it is also a dangerous one.
For more information see:
Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals Continuum 2000 Specious Science: How Genetics and Evolution Reveal Why Medical Research on Animals Harms Humans Continuum 2002.
The NAVS and AFMA web sites
www.jaine27y.org