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Compassion - The Unifying Idea of
Progress
By Dr. Dan Lyons
potentially the most financially lucrative approach, it has until now dominated the efforts to solve the organ shortfall
who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect humanity has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from
Our bodies naturally attack foreign cells, so to try to circumvent the very strong rejection of pig organs, scientists have resorted to genetic engineering. But despite confident predictions of success, it has proved impossible to unravel the enormous obstacles to cross-species transplants. Furthermore, investment in xenotransplantation research has taken place at the expense of more feasible, if less technologically spectacular, solutions. As a consequence, people will have died while hopes have been foolishly pinned on pig organ transplants.
An essential, salient feature of the animal rights movement is its political activity. Animal rights are an ethical issue, and so it is not just a personal matter. In order to protect animals, we believe that we must go beyond our personal lives to campaign peacefully for the social and political changes that advance and enshrine animal rights in our society and culture.
What's more, it has emerged that retroviruses related to HIV lurk in pig cells, and they can infect human cells. Should pig organs be transplanted, such viruses will have a unique opportunity to establish itself in the human population, with potentially catastrophic results. Interestingly, the genetic modification of pigs appears to heighten this danger by concealing the pig viruses from the human immune system.
Our wonder and admiration for animals and the natural world has an inevitable flip side - our sorrow and despair at the cruelty and destruction wreaked by humanity. In a few cases, such anguish leads animal rights advocates to become aggressive in the pursuit of their ideals. Unfortunately, with a media that values sensationalism and wishes to condemn an ideal which contradicts the dominant anthropocentric cultural norm, such aggression is highlighted at the expense of the vast majority of purely non-violent and democratic work for animal rights that is carried out by groups like Uncaged. For me and the vast majority of animal rights advocates, the principle of non-violence is fundamental for both moral and strategic reasons. We cannot encourage deep acceptance of animal rights by force.
PLEASE RESPECT ANIMALS' RIGHTS
Ouncaged
I therefore hope that readers apply the Jain principle of Anekantavada to their relationship with the animal rights movement. In particular, I hope that together we can explore the possibility that animal rights is one of the path that Jains could take in pursuit of the ultimate truth - that progress can only be measured in terms of compassion towards animals and nature.
It is the prioritisation of moral values and the recognition of ecological interconnectedness that combine to produce the notion of progress that is common to Jainism and animal rights. From an Indian background, this is famously expressed in Gandhi's famous quote: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." While the Czech novelist and thinker Milan Kundera observed in The Unbearable Lightness of Being:
Dr Dan Lyons is Campaigns Director of Uncaged. Uncaged, 9 Bailey Lane, Sheffield, SI 4EG. 0114 2722220 info@uncaged.co.uk www.uncaged.co.uk
"True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those
For a full report on the Vegan Festival in India mentioned in this article, please see the previous newsletter, Volume 32 No. 3/2007, Nov 2007-Feb 2008, for a report by Mahersh and Nishma Shah. Young Jains also promoted and publicised the peaceful candlelit procession for animal rights (pictured) organised by Uncaged in December 2007.
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