 The Big QuestionIf you had to choose between saving a child or experimenting on an animal, which would you choose? It is no longer an "either/or" world. Even if you did experiment on an animal, there is always that "first human" who takes the drug or gets the treatment. Based on animal studies' track record, it may be preferable that the "first human trial" come after "alternative research" methods. If the first experiments were computer assays, cell cultures, virotherapy, in-silico studies, DNA and genetic code studies, tissue banks, biochips and dozens more, we might all be safer. These would actually offer more precise research trials over animal studies. Animal studies can delay important breakthroughs. According to Jarrod Baily, Ph.D., almost half of the substances proving fatal or dangerous in animal studies are actually helpful for humans. (Biogenic scientific journal, May 2005.) |