MEDICAL RESEARCH, HUMANS OWE MUCH TO ANIMALS


Anti-vivisectionists, better known today as "animal rights
activists,"have been protesting the use of animals in research
long before any of us were here. In recent years, they have
infiltrated and utilized the resources of legitimate
organizations, such as human societies, and groups concerned with
global problems, such as environmental pollution and endangered
wildlife.

Is it moral to study animals for the benefit of man? This
is the moral, ethical and religious issue the public must decide.
Certainly those families faced with incurable diseases would
support advancements made through biomedical research. Most of
us who will enjoy at least 21 more years of life because of
vaccines, antibiotics, drugs and operations nearly all developed
through the use of animals would agree. The doctrines of almost
every Judeo-Christian religion endorse the humane use of animals
to serve man.

Can we make medical progress without animal research?
Position statements from more than 60 national health
organizations including the American Heart Association, American
Cancer Society, Arthritis Foundation and Juvenile Diabetes
Foundations say that animals are necessary for biomedical
research. The "alternative" methods advanced by animal rights
activists cell cultures and computer modeling demonstrate the
pathetic scientific ignorance of these people. Scientists have
been the first to utilize computers as additional tools in their
laboratories and to utilize cell culture methods and other
testtube approaches whenever possible.

The scientific community welcomes the use of methods that
can lesson the number of animals used in research. While these
methods may replace the use of some animals, they do not
eliminate the use of all animals. Cells studied in cell cultures
must be obtained from animals. The fact remains that at some
point in the research process, we must study how the mechanisms
of individual cells influence the whole animal. Despite what
animal rights activists say, animal responses are usually very
predictive of what will be seen in man.

It would be unconscionable to test these theories gathered
first from isolated cells and computer simulation in human
subjects. Who would want their family members to volunteer for
such studies? Who would prefer that we just stop trying to cure
cancer, heart disease, kidney and liver disease,muscular
dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, cerebral palsy, AIDS and the many
other devastating diseases that afflict mankind?

Where will all this end? Unless scientists are able to
engender a greater public awareness of the damage being done by
the well-funded anti-vivisectionists, medical research is in for
some hard times.

To deal with these problems, physicians and scientists
within the state have now formed the Wisconsin Association for
Biomedical Research and Education - WABRE. Drawing its members
from the University of Wisconsin campuses in Madison and
Milwaukee, Marquette University, the Medical College of
Wisconsin, Marshfield Clinic and Gundersen Clinic, WABRE is
working to inform Wisconsin's citizens about the valuable service
to both man and animals that is achieved by the humane use of
animals in research.

It is our hope that we in the biomedical research community
can continue to offer our children hope for cures of the diseases
we have yet to conquer.

WABRE
P.O. Box 26509
Milwaukee, WI 53226