Extremists on both sides of the vivisection debate

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has accused those opposed to animal testing as ‘extremists’ — but it is just as extreme to support all animal testing as it is to oppose it entirely.

On the one hand, there are experiments that cause little suffering and result in considerable benefits; on the other, there are tests that cause appalling cruelty and do nothing but satisfy idle curiosity and confirm the obvious.

These could be done from epidemiological studies or computer models, or are simply a long shot by companies to increase profits. LD50 tests are a legal requirement and involve forcing animals to ingest increasing quantities of a substance until half of them die.

Feeding a cosmetic or toilet cleaner to 100 rabbits until 50 of them die is pointless; it tells us little about the effects on humans, especially the effects of long-term low dosage, or the effect when combined with other chemicals.

Normally, adequate information is available from accidental poisoning.

The development of some ‘wonder drug’ as a result of testing on animals is the exception rather than the rule — animal tests are a safety check, and the drugs still have to be tested on humans before being marketed.

Different species react differently and there is no guarantee of either safety or efficacy. It is nonsense to say serious diseases couldn’t be cured without animal testing because major breakthroughs come from observation and expert knowledge.

Anyone who reads medical literature, or even the media, will be aware of animal experiments where the end does not justify the means.

Many experiments cause incredible suffering, and it is nonsense for Mr Blair and those with financial interests in vivisection to claim that the ‘silent majority’ condones this sort of thing.

I believe that, given the facts, the majority of people would find much of the animal testing ethically unacceptable. Rather than making sweeping generalisations, it behoves the extremists on both sides to look carefully at the ethics of individual tests.

The media loves to portray things in black and white, but reality is a shade of grey.

God knows there are already enough laws to enable people to be prosecuted for any conceivable activity. Politicians make a pretence of solving any problem by passing more draconian legislation which reduces human rights and rarely solves the problem.

Michael Job

Rossnagreana

Glengarriff

Co Cork