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DOCTORS AGAINST VIVISECTION"The reason why I am against animal
research is because it doesn't work, it has no scientific value and every
good scientist knows that." "Since there is no way to defend
the use of animal model systems in plain English or with scientific facts,
they resort to double-talk in technical jargon...The virtue of animal
model systems to those in hot pursuit of the federal dollars is that they
can be used to prove anything - no matter how foolish, or false, or
dangerous this might be. There is such a wide variation in the results of
animal model systems that there is always some system which will 'prove' a
point....The moral is that animal model systems not only kill animals,
they also kill humans. There is no good factual evidence to show that the
use of animals in cancer research has led to the prevention or cure of a
single human cancer." "Practically all animal experiments
are untenable on a statistical scientific basis, for they possess no
scientific validity or reliability. They merely perform an alibi for
pharmaceutical companies, who hope to protect themselves thereby." "Like every member of my
profession, I was brought up in the belief that almost every important
fact in physiology had been obtained by vivisection and that many of our
most valued means of saving life and diminishing suffering had resulted
from experiments on the lower animals. I now know that nothing of the sort
is true concerning the art of surgery: and not only do I not believe that
vivisection has helped the surgeon one bit, but I know that it has often
led him astray." "Experiments have never been the
means for discovery; and a survey of what has been attempted of late years
in physiology will prove that the opening of living animals has done more
to perpetuate error than to confirm the just views taken from the study of
anatomy and natural motions." "Atrocious medical experiments are
being done on children, mostly physically and handicapped ones, and on
aborted foetuses, given or sold to laboratories for experimental purposes.
This is a logical development of the practice of vivisection. It is our
urgent task to accelerate its inevitable downfall." "Vivisection is barbaric, useless,
and a hindrance to scientific progress. I learned how to operate from
other surgeons. It's the only way, and every good surgeon knows
that." "Normally, animal experiments not
only fail to contribute to the safety of medications, but they even have
the opposite effect." "Experiments on animals lead
inevitably to experiments on people...As if an animal experiment could
ever predict the same result on a person. And as if an experiment on one
human being could enable us to foresee the reactions of another human
being, whose biology and metabolism are different, whose blood pressure is
different, whose lifestyle and age and nourishment and sensitivity and
genes and everything else are different...We recognise that each single
organism, whether human or animal, has its very own reactions...Today's
orthodox medicine and suppressive surgery don't understand the purpose of
disease and therefore don't know how to treat it. A real doctor's
experience derives from his natural intuition coupled with his observation
at the sickbed, but never from invasive, violent experiments on people,
and much less on animals. Instead of vital hygiene, which aims at
preservation or reconstruction of health by natural means and shuns all
use of degrading, destructive chemicals, today's medical students are only
taught to manipulate poisons and mutilate bodies. We demand that this be
changed." "Giving cancer to laboratory
animals has not and will not help us to understand the disease or to treat
those persons suffering from it." "Everyone should know that most
cancer research is largely a fraud, and that the major cancer research
organisations are derelict in their duties to the people who support
them." "Not only are the studies
themselves often lacking even face value, but they also drain badly needed
funds away from patient care needs." "All our current knowledge of
medicine and surgery derives from observations of man following especially
the anatomical-clinical method introduced by Virchow: symptoms of the
patient while alive and the alterations found in the dead body. These
observations have led us to discover the connection between smoking and
cancer, between diet and arteriosclerosis, between alcohol and cirrhosis,
and so on. Even the RH factor was not discovered on the macasus rhesus.
The observations of Banting and Best on diabetes, attributed to
experiments on dogs, were already well-known. Every discovery derives from
observations on humans, which are subsequently duplicated in animals, and
whenever the findings happen to concur, their discovery is attributed to
animal experimentation. Everything we know today in medicine derives from
observations made on human beings. The ancient Romans and Greeks gained
most of their knowledge from epidemiological studies of people. The same
goes for surgery. Surgery can't be learned on animals. Animals are
anatomically completely different from man, their reactivity is completely
different, their structure and resistance are completely different. In
fact, exercises on animals are misleading. The surgeon who works a lot on
animals loses the sensibility necessary for operating on humans." "My own conviction is that the
study of human physiology by way of experimenting on animals is the most
grotesque and fantastic error ever committed in the whole range of human
intellectual activity." "Why am I against vivisection? The
most important reason is because it's bad science, producing a lot of
misleading and confusing data which pose hazards to human health. It's
also a waste of taxpayer's dollars to take healthy animals and
artificially and violently induce diseases in them that they normally
wouldn't get, or which occur in different form, when we already have the
sick people who can be studied while they're being treated." "It is well known that animal
effects are often totally different from the effects on people. This
applies to substances in medical use as well as substances such as 245y
and dioxin." "The growing opposition to
vivisection is understandable both on ethical and biological counts.
However, a certain scientistic culture says they serve to save human
lives. But reality is quite the opposite. Let's take the case of
pesticides. These dangerous products, used in agriculture, are classified
according to their acute toxicity, graduated with the Lethal Dose 50%
tests on animals. This represents not only a useless sacrifice of animals,
but it's an alibi that enables the chemical industry to sell products
which are classified as harmless or almost harmless, but are in reality
very harmful in the long run, even if taken in small doses. Many
pesticides classified as belonging to the fourth category, meaning they
can be sold and used freely, have turned out to be carcinogenic or
mutagenic or capable of harming the fetus. Also in this case, animal tests
are not only ambiguous, but they serve to put on the market products of
which any carcinogenic effect will be ascertained only when used by human
beings - the real guinea-pigs of the multinationals. And yet there are
laboratory tests that can be used, which are cheaper and quicker than
animal tests; in vitro tests on cell cultures, which have been proving
their worth for years already. But the interests of the chemical
industries which foist on us new products in all fields may not be
questioned." "Animal model systems differ from
their human counterparts. Conclusions drawn from animal research, when
applied to human beings, are likely to delay progress, mislead, and do
harm to the patient. Vivisection, or animal experimentation, should be
abolished." "Experiments on animals do not only
mean torture and death for the animals, they also mean the killing of
people. Vivisection is a double-edged sword." Cawadias (1953) has said that "The
history of medicine has shown that, whenever medicine has strayed from
clinical observation, the result has been chaos, stagnation and
disaster."
The above quotes were taken from the book 1000 Doctors (& many more) Against Vivisection, (Ed. Hans Ruesch), CIVIS, 1989. For further information or to purchase the book contact Hans Ruesch Foundation/CIVIS - POB 152, via Motta 51, CH-6900 Massagno/Lugano, Switzerland - or Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research (CAFMR) - P.O. Box 234, Lawson, New South Wales 2783, Australia; Phone/fax +61 (0)2-4758-6822. Email: cafmr@pnc.com.au. URL: www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr Donations needed - As CAFMR is dependent on donation money we need your financial support to continue our work.
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