Page 6, Portland Observer, November 21, 1984
Healthwatch
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by Steven Bailey N .D ,
Baby
»«, the innocent, it no
more, yet i. * issue« o f medical eth
ics that he. t vgery brought to the
fo re fro n t shall live fo r years to
come. While the short term survival
o f Fae exhibited the tremendous
ability o f current chemotherapy to
suppress organ rejection, the events
surrounding the operation and
cross-species experimentation have
created a m ajor national debate.
Unique to this debate is the loud vo
cal dissention w ithin the ranks o f
the allopathic medical community,
the av a ila b iity o f the medical-
research communities.
Iron ically, amid this irious de
bate, there has emerged » common
irreverence for the opinions and ac
tions o f anim al rights groups, as
well as an avoidance of many broad
er issues related t .
<e Baby Fae
case. Front page a r ti.. „ ' '
Ore
gonian (O ct. 28, 84) have quoted
authorities who referred to o b ‘—
tions as "m isconceptions”
id
based on "e m o tio n a l rather th .
clearly rational" grounds. M r. Ra.i
berry, national columnist wrote " I
have talked to them, and I have
read their books on ‘animal rights'
(N o v . 2, 84 O regonian p. C l I ) . I
also wondered if his readings ex
tended beyond current texts such as
A n im a l L ib e ra tio n , and Tools f o r
Experimentation, etc., and into the
w ritings o f G h a n d i, W h itm a n ,
Thoreau, Christ and others whose
reverence for life and nature extend
ed beyond the myopic egotism prev
alent in rapid technological growth.
The debate over Baby Fae’ s op
eration has questioned the blind de
termination and self-regulation by
the Loma Linda researchers. It has
also addressed the current ability to
sustain longterm survival using
organs from non-human primates.
Many researchers and medical doc
tors have m aintained that in te r
species transplants can only be
viewed as an experim ent, and real
benefits to Fae would be short term
at best. W hile these issues are rele
vant, broader issues addressed by
many groups include:
I — In the U .S . we spend over 10
percent o f our G N P (over 350 m il
lion dollars) on medical costs each
year. W h ile we d o n 't flin ch at
spending millions on artificial hearts
and organ transplants, we perm it
poverty and poor pre-natal nutrition
to contribute to the m a jo rity o f
birth defects within the U .S. W hile
ignoring preventative social health
programs, we in d ivid ually rectify
the problems o f a few with a com
passionate display of high tech med
icine. W ith our current knowledge
o f pre-natal needs, the ill effects o f
industrial chemicals and en viro n
mental pollutants, and an ever-
expanding volume o f inform ation
on preventive and healthful habits,
our excessive focus on drug thera
pies, surgical remedies, and end
stage life maintenance may actually
be contributing to a less optimal na
tional health standard.
2 — The use o f anim als in re
search, medicine, industry and de
fense is much greater than most
people realize. Over 75 million ani
mals are used each year in the
U .S . with businesses breeding and
selling laboratory animals like any
other com m ercial p roduct. Re
searchers are individuals, but as a
whole their industry has shown a
complete irreverence for the rights
of animals.
"Speciesism" is the current term
for the common devaluation o f life
related to the difference between hu
mans and other species. Less than
200 years ago ethnic differences
encountered similar opinions, and
the use o f " in fe rio r" human stock
for transplantation purposes may
have been avoided solely by the
technological restraints o f the time.
It was no more than 50 years ago
(hat Dr. Drew, developer o f plasma
transfusion, died because a southern
hospital refused to admit the Black
doctor and provide the emergency
transfusion for which he received
the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Today
I com m only see patients who, be
cause o f financial lim itation s, re
ceive emergency care that is con
sistently less extensive than that pro
vided to insured or finan cially re
sponsible patients.
3— Animals w ill remain as tools
for research for some t««e. W hat
we, who speak out for out in-articu
late friends, wish to d o, is create
change. There are innum erable
cases o f redundant experiments
which give little or no new informa-
lion to science. The LD50 procedure
which requires that 50% o f a given
population die by overdose to de
termine safe limits o f the drug, has
proven inaccurate in regards to
o ro flex, thalidom ide, bendictine,
acutane, etc., yet continues to be
the industrial standard. This is in
spite of human cell culture-alterna
tives that are accurate and econom
ical. The Draize test, which results
in causing severe pain and the blind
ing o f thousands o f rabbits yearly,
can be replaced with sim ilar tests
using the nerve cells o f chicken em-
bryos. We want less exploitation of
animals and a more objective review
process o f animal experimentation.
There it absolutely no reason to
contend that science and human
welfare w ill suffer with changes in
experimental design and review, in
fact the benefits o f change should
be substantial.
4— Self-regulation by the research
com m unity has proven itself in e f
fective. The continued defiance by
the Joslin Diabetes Center Research
Laboratory o f Boston (to D e p a rt
ment o f A gricu ltu re citations o f
over a year ago regarding m inim al
confinement violations) exem pli
fies the problem . The recent local
discovery o f starvations and dis
ease at the Knutson Kennels, which
was reported to have supplied re
search facilities with stolen and
dishonestly procured anim als, re
veals another problem with self
regulation. The practice o f pound
seizure and the use o f domestic dogs
and cats in research is a m ajor is
sue which needs dramatic improve
ment.
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-'X AS
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there are many other focal issues
within the animal rights movement
which need further exposure. The
discussion over the Baby Fae case
w ill survive for decades, however
there is no reason for the continued
dichotom y between anim al advo
cates and scientific progress, as
they may well find mutual harmony
in an enlightened future.
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