Testing our Humanity
Albert Einstein once stated, “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Life is a precious thing, thus minimizing pain and maximizing happiness is a universal truth. This applies to all species on this Earth. However, a mindset called speciesism has dominated the world. Within our own species war has broken out against those defenseless. We condemn sexism and racism, yet our entire infrastructure and society is built upon animals suffering. Equality is a word that the United States promises for all, yet forgets animals are living, emotional creatures as well. Thus we must extend this principle it to all beings on this planet and illegalize animal testing. Adverting the facts we’d rather not hear is perhaps to ease a burdened conscience that has been tainted over the years. Let me bluntly state what is ignored. Not only is the suffering inflicted on these animals vulgar, but 12 million of tax funded dollars supports the veins of it every year. AAVS.org provided this information on the article, “How Animals are Used,” and explains some of the most often practiced procedures. Eye irritancy often involves rabbits that are restrained while an extremely painful chemical descends into one eye. They are evaluated and restrained for up to seven days, while the acidic chemical burns their eyes. Mutagenicity is the vulgar experimentation in which animals, often mice are given a mutation that literally changes their chemical makeup, for example cancer. They are forced to go through the same pain a human cancer patient would, and are then killed often without anesthetic and dissected. Not only is it unsuccessful, but alternatives such as cell toxicology which harm no one have a success rate of 80% to 95% according to PETA would be a much stronger alternative to fighting diseases. We look upon human cancer patients with sorrow but give their diseases to other creatures. The emotional connection of giving birth exists in any species. Humans or lab rats. In reproductive toxicity, subjects are given large doses of toxic chemicals. While preparing to bring their offspring into the world, they are dying from this virulent chemical. Just before birth, they are killed. Their fetuses are ripped apart and examined, along with their newly born offspring. The last extremely inhumane practice is ecotoxicity. The victim is often fish and their environment is invaded by toxic fumes, a practice comparable to gas chambers. After a 96 hour period, half of them die at a lethal dose. Though these experiments are obviously cruel and unthinkable to inflict on another human being, they’re performed on animals by the thousands until the desired effect is achieved. None of them are illegal or even regulated despite how cruel, irrelevant to human health or redundant they are. The priority is human benefit, which comes in many sinister shades of black. Human beings forget to extend humanity to species other than ourselves. The Animal Welfare Act is the only law in place that forces labs to use anesthetic and conduct somewhat ethical procedures. A shocking 95% of animals used in experiments are not protected by this law. Meaning the labs can treat them in any grotesque way and perform excruciatingly painful procedures such as the ones listed above without anesthetic. For this reason, over 800 laboratories strictly use animals not defended and are never faced with regulations or ethics. Who protects them? Animal testing ethics were demolished by a man named Harry Harlow. Who bluntly said, “The only thing I care about is whether a monkey will turn out a property I can publish. I don’t have any love for them. How could you love a monkey? I just have no feeling for them—at all.” The Mad Scientist blog studies the history of scientists gone wrong. According to the page, Harlow created tests that subjected thousands of primates to psychological abuse. He was infamous for, “The Well of Despair.” The environment was an extremely small space closed off to any stimulus, light and interaction. For an entire year, these newborn monkeys only knew darkness are were torn apart from their mothers. Even the happiest monkeys showed signs of deep, psychological depression. He progressed this depression by making them become addicted to alcohol. He also forced monkeys to mate by using a rape rack. This resulted in the victimized mothers chewing off their child’s fingers and crushing their heads after the torture they were put through. The 20th century animal rights activist and Utilitarian philosopher, Peter Singer, stated in his book Practical Ethics that “The application of the principle of equality to the infliction of suffering is... fairly straightforward. Pain and suffering are bad and should be prevented or minimized, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the being that suffers.. When we come to consider the value of life, we cannot say quite so confidently that a life is a life, and equally valuable, whether it is a human life or an animals.” How can we value one life over another? How is it justifiable to kill thousands of animals to produce one vaccine that has an extremely low probability of even helping the human population? Though we may share some genetic structure with species like primates, our systems still respond very differently to drugs. According to PETA, one of the leading movements for animal rights, “Nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory and animal studies.” Despite this shocking truth, over 100 million animals are dissected, infected, injected, gassed, mutilated, radiated, tortured, burned, blinded and poisoned in a futile effort. A Utilitarianist point of view could come into place. Though many argue animal testing is necessary to maximize human welfare, it is extremely wasteful. Let’s break it down, past the technical labels of humans or animals that create an identity of chains. Every living, breathing organism on this planet is composed of energy. Though we manifest in different forms our framework is eternally linked. We all experience pain or fear and expanding Rawls Veil of Ignorance, the placement on this planet isn’t at our hands. We cannot determine our fate so those with more power must liberate the suppressed. Despite their gender, ethnicity, culture or species, every single piece of this planet deserves respect. Speciesism is synonymous with sexism and racism. Injustice is injustice despite the hue of paint it’s masked by. Sidenote, If this op ed inspired you to take action, I urge you that it can take place even in your own home. Below are links to PETA’s list of companies that do and do not test on animals. Change can begin with the smallest actions. Boycott these companies, fight for the silenced! Please, do not just read this op ed, allow it to tear you apart for a moment and then continue supporting this industry. Do not do the animals and I that injustice! Thank you for listening to me ramble, have an exceptional day. http://www.mediapeta.com/peta/PDF/companiesdonttest.pdf http://www.mediapeta.com/peta/PDF/companiesdotest.pdf
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2016
Categories |