An Ethical Dilemma?

Most PACE members and members of other campaigning animal protection organisations are motivated overwhelmingly by compassion, since we can empathise with the feelings of animals kept captive, isolated, and subjected to invasive and often painful and frightening experimental techniques. And many tend to feel most compassion and empathy for those species closest to ourselves, the primates, especially chimps and other apes. We feel that human beings have no right, even in pursuit of potential advantage to themselves, to inflict such suffering on other species. Our opponents think they can dismiss such arguments as ‘emotive’, though the human capacity for emotion was, after all, itself programmed into our species because as a useful tool for our survival - for example as the driver of male-female attraction, or of the parental care of infants or even self-sacrificial heroism in life-threatening emergency situations or in war.

However there are many other arguments in addition to the ‘emotive’ one which are now increasingly being accepted, even by medical researchers, who are gradually realising that animal models, even chimp models, can not be reliable predictors for humans of the effects or effectiveness of new drugs, vaccines and other treatments.

Moreover there are now so many alternative methods open to researchers, using advanced technology, that the animal researchers are running out of convincing arguments.

It is one of these "alternatives", however, which could lead to an ethical dilemma for many of us concerned, if we want to pursue realistic goals in new legislation by government and international bodies. Scientists have developed ways of implanting human genetic material into the eggs of mice who then produce a generation of mice with organs that will respond as the human organ would. These mice are chimeras who will be born by the thousands for the sole purpose of continual invasive procedures.

The big question is: IF supporting these developments were to be the ONLY possible way to get the use of primates in medical research banned, would we be prepared to accept a pragmatic trade-off whereby research resources could be shifted into breeding and refining strains of monstrous mice to replace them?

I would welcome your views and will report on the results in the next newsletter. Write to Frankie Reynolds c/o PACE HQ, 65 Lowther Road, Brighton BN1 6LG or email PACE at pace@supaworld.com.

Frankie Reynolds

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