• Question: do you think it is ok to kill animals if the tests save a human life? do you harm animals in your work?

    Asked by ella to Louise, Michaela, Sian, Steve, Yvette on 14 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by broccoli, ladykaddy, mizzbibi.
    • Photo: Louise Johnson

      Louise Johnson answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I’ve only ever worked on yeasts and fungi myself. But I stand up for scientists who do work on animals because, while we all care about animals, people are more important.

    • Photo: Yvette Wilson

      Yvette Wilson answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      yes, I do hate the thought though, but then I imagine if it was me, my brother, sister, parents or husband that might die if we didn’t understand more about how to cure a disease. Fortunately I don’t have to make decisions on animal testing in my work.

    • Photo: Steven Kiddle

      Steven Kiddle answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      This is a very hard question and one that I spend a lot of time thinking about.

      The killing of animals should be avoided where possible, but if human lives are saved then I believe it may be justifiable. I am a vegetarian because I believe that unnecessary killing of animals is horrible, but if two mice die to save ten humans then I would probably agree with it.

      Its hard because the animals don’t get to choose their involvement, but I think on balance a human life is worth saving. I certainly think that every animal death in a lab needs to be justified. But its interesting to find out how many humans would be dead today if all animal experiments were banned.

      I do not harm animals in my work.

    • Photo: Michaela Livingstone

      Michaela Livingstone answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      This is a tricky subject! I love animals, and as hard as it might to be accept, they are different to us, in that we experience emotions and are aware of ourselves, our own existance, what are feelings and actions may or may not mean, etc. Some might argue that we’re still just animals and equal to a mouse or fish, but to me, we’re just not. Having said that though I wouldn’t just agree with people experimenting on animals willy nilly, without any controls. I think it’s fine so long as there’s a good reason for choosing an animal, rather than some other system, and it’s done humanely, ie the animals don’t experience pain and so forth. It’s that choice, we either lose our loved ones to a disease that could have been treated had we been able to find a drug to treat it and understand why it happens and what exactly is going wrong, or we use animals that have no idea that there’s a life outside a lab cage. Sounds really harsh I know, and it bugs me a bit even, but that’s how it is for me.

      I don’t use any animals no, but I do use things that can recognise very specific things called antibodies – they’re produced in our bodies to recognise foreign things and help find and fight infections. Our antibodies are produced in goats, mice and rats, so they unfortunately die to make those, however, it is ultimately for a good cause.

    • Photo: Sian Harding

      Sian Harding answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Yes, if my daughter was ill I would give any number of rats to save her. I use mice and rats when I cant use human cells. But I am developing a way of growing heart cells from human stem cells (made from skin) to try to replace animals, and I have money from an animal charity to help

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