About a year ago, I got a job with Johnson & Johnson. Along with my contract, I also had to sign a statement that I agreed to the animal testing in their research labs.
After some consideration, I signed. After all, I was only going to work as a temp in the copywriting department.
To this day, however, I’m still not sure where I stand in the debate on animal testing. It’s a subject that interests me a lot, though, and so I was eager to see a BBC documentary tonight called Monkeys, Rats and Me: Animal Testing.
It was quite an amazing television experience.
Central to the programme was the new biomedical research lab at Oxford University and the protesters who oppose it… and those who are in favour.
Enter Laurie Pycroft, a sixteen year old geek who started Pro-Test, an action group campaigning in favour of animal testing. And boy, is he quite the character.
Whereas the protesters, grouped in SPEAK, were led by a jittery figure who couldn’t help get arrested at every rally, Pro-Test is entirely carried by winsome teen genius Pycroft. The boy is a school dropout, he is educating himself and is a member of the National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth. On the Pro-Test website he describes himself as a polymath.
In the documentary we see him with the tell-tale multiple monitors on his desk, the self assembled PC (running what?) and the cow’s heart he pickled himself. He wants to be a surgeon, you see.
I have to admit, I rather wanted to take the side of the wizz kid and his erudite gang of brainiacs, instead of the agitated bunch of raggle-taggle protesters. Pro-Test has a point – a reasonable point. But seeing the miserable lives of the lab rats and the monkeys had me doubting again.
Then it was over to doctor Tipu Aziz and Sean Gardiner, a boy with Parkinson’s who had hugely benefited from recent brain surgery that was directly based on animal research – and I swung the other way. Again.
After all this, even animal rights eminence grise Peter Singer said he could not see how ‘justifiable research’ could be called wrong if it helped patients like this.
After all this, I was just as confused as before.
28 November 2006 at 3:11 pm
This topic is always going to be a hard one, and ultimately there is no clearly defined wrong or right. It’s too complicated to take sides, and I can always find reasoning in both points of view so wouldn’t want to commit.
On the blog front, I see you’ve changed yours too. I assume there’s more developments to come. Keep up the good work. I have changed my template too, but have gone back to basics.
29 November 2006 at 12:03 am
Yeah, it’s hard for me too – a fight between ethics and pragmatism, between the heart and reason.
I actually changed mine after reading your post. I was sick of the clutter too. ;-)
29 November 2006 at 7:15 am
a very difficult topic for me..much has come from animal testing that have helped humans yet the sacrifices of the animal world is more than my head can wrap around. i would love to see a world in which none of that existed.
i love the new look. it is very beautiful. also wanted to tell you that i had a nice visit with your mom’s pics and your childhood ones and loved each one of them. how nice of you to share them. she was such a beautiful girl i tell you and you such a cutie.
hope all is well. take care.
29 November 2006 at 12:51 pm
Sometimes animal testing is necessary. After all, the first dog in space is an example of animal testing. However, if some cosmetics company needs to test its new product on animals, I’ve got to ask myself if I really want something like that on my skin.
29 November 2006 at 8:57 pm
Hey, Chana, thanks for dropping by. So glad you didn’t miss the old negatives. I thought you might like those.
And yes, Sophie, testing for cosmetic purposes is something I could never condone. But you’re both right, it’s weird and yet we know it helps us. Difficult.
30 November 2006 at 8:14 pm
This subject is always a touchy one. For me there is always a fight between heart and head as for me I think animal testing is quite simply sickening. However once it is thought through logically animal testing is perhaps necessary in some cases such as medical research, the only reason I say that is for the good of the humans, perhaps a bit selfish of me I know…
One thing I can’t stand is seeing animals being tested for cosmetics, I think that is completely unnecessary and unfair on those poor animals.
On a slightly different note, I gather from some other comments you have changed your theme (I have only just discovered you today) and I would like to say I think it looks very nice, quite neutral colour wise, very effective.
1 December 2006 at 1:04 am
Thanks Aidan, for dropping by. I know exactly what you mean. It’s a difficult issue. Of course, I just wanted to convey how I felt after seeing that documentary and how confusing things still were afterwards.
Yep, just changed the theme – I wanted something very light and without clutter. Glad you like it.