Interesting. I was actually aware of the March of Dimes issues, as many of their research projects are conducted on animals. This is an issue I have not yet come to complete agreement or personal reconciliation with yet. While I understand the need for some testing with animals, one of the main problems with much animal testing is that it is merely repetitive of other labs, etc. Many animal lives are wasted in repeat experiments. Also, many animal experiments are not all that helpful in comparing for human reactions to drugs, etc.
Another issue I have is that many (not all, but many) of the folks who support March of Dimes may also be against stem cell research. Therefore, speciesism is seriously at play. It's okay to kill animals but not use cells from humans.
I think the thing that bothers me most out of all these situations is that human life is regarded as the most important while animal life is regarded as easily disposable. I won't go so far as Peter Singer to say we should use sick babies for research (and Peter Singer may not go that far...Ineed to revisit Animal Liberation), but I also feel uncomfortable in saying "test freely" with any and all animals for human medical uses.
My opinion is that animals are not ours to use for whatever we see fit. We do not have domain over their lives. And we operate like we do. We operate with the assumption that animals are our property, not their own being with their own existence.
It's all a bunch of tough questions - and like I said, I haven't reconciled it all yet. I invite others to post their responses as well.
But I can also say, I haven't donated to the March of Dimes in quite some time.
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Is using animals for medical research right or wrong?
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Interesting. I was actually aware of the March of Dimes issues, as many of their research projects are conducted on animals. This is an issue I have not yet come to complete agreement or personal reconciliation with yet. While I understand the need for some testing with animals, one of the main problems with much animal testing is that it is merely repetitive of other labs, etc. Many animal lives are wasted in repeat experiments. Also, many animal experiments are not all that helpful in comparing for human reactions to drugs, etc.
Another issue I have is that many (not all, but many) of the folks who support March of Dimes may also be against stem cell research. Therefore, speciesism is seriously at play. It's okay to kill animals but not use cells from humans.
I think the thing that bothers me most out of all these situations is that human life is regarded as the most important while animal life is regarded as easily disposable. I won't go so far as Peter Singer to say we should use sick babies for research (and Peter Singer may not go that far...Ineed to revisit Animal Liberation), but I also feel uncomfortable in saying "test freely" with any and all animals for human medical uses.
My opinion is that animals are not ours to use for whatever we see fit. We do not have domain over their lives. And we operate like we do. We operate with the assumption that animals are our property, not their own being with their own existence.
It's all a bunch of tough questions - and like I said, I haven't reconciled it all yet. I invite others to post their responses as well.
But I can also say, I haven't donated to the March of Dimes in quite some time.
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