My Personal Views on Animal Experimentation

by Carolee McGill Barker

I do not advocate cruelty to animals. People who hurt animals or people just for the sake of causing pain
and suffering should be severely punished. I have no doubt that some experimentation that is done on animals
also causes them pain and suffering. I wish with all my heart that this did not have to be the case.
However, I cannot condemn this experimentation for one very important reason-animal experimentation has saved
my life.

I would be dead now if no one had ever experimented on an animal, because I am, and have been for
the past 15 years, an insulin-dependant diabetic. Contrary to what some people think, insulin is not a cure-
I do the best I can to manage my diabetes, but I still must prick my finger 4 times every day to test the blood
and inject insulin twice a day. (I am even considering switching to 3 shots a day in my quest for better control.)

Think about that. How many twice-daily injections occur over the course of 15 years? Over a lifetime? How
many people must do this? How many of them (or their parents) would turn down a cure that was discovered due to
animal research? Would you? Maybe you are noble enough to say you would and mean it. Maybe you truly believe that the world
would be a better place if those you love whose lives have been saved due to animal research had been taken from
you early if such a thing would have saved the lives of animals. I, for one, am not and do not.

Now, don't get the wrong idea-I don't want you to feel sorry for me. I've been diabetic for a long time, and I
realize that I am, in some ways, very lucky. I can walk, see, hear, and speak, and my cognitive functioning is intact.
My life span will most likely be normal if I manage my disease carefully. Diabetes allows me these luxuries.
Many physical problems do not. Cancer, AIDS, and traumatic brain injury come to mind as examples.

People suffering from such problems do not have the time to wait for alternatives to animal experimentation to be developed that allow
scientists to discover a cure without resorting to that tactic. Every single person suffering from such a problem is someone's
loved one. I cannot advocate the premature removal of these people from those who love them, no matter how many animals
are saved. I am moved to pity by the thought of animals suffering in any way, but this feeling pales in comparison to
how I feel when I think of someone being forever a quadrapalegic or family and friends losing a loved one. If all animal
experimentation is stopped, how many people will never walk again? How many people will lose body parts? And how many
families will feel the pain of the premature loss of a loved one? I don't want to think about it.

This has been my opinion on this subject. For more information, you can visit this very helpful and informative web site.
Foundation for Biomedical Research

I have no doubt that some of you disagree with what I have said. I will publish comments on this web site if you care to send them to me.

Your chances of changing my mind, though, are very slim.

Back to Clicking 4 a Cause

Please note: this page is under construction.