I’m a scientist- or at least I want to be one. To pursue a career in the medical field, I have to be trained in being understanding while pushing away the weight of the potential risks in a medical career. But even a person of science shouldn’t be able to deny the horror of animal testing. Having read my fair share of medical novels and articles, I found several ties to the last segment of Earthlings.
I guess I’ll start with the least horrendous. It’s actually also the most fresh in my mind because it was just over this summer that I read the related book. In case you’ve never heard of Robin Cook, he’s a MD that chose to write novels with the scientific knowledge he garnered from medical school. My mom, having enjoyed his writing herself, gave me a copy of Chromosome 6 to pass the time on my down shifts at work. The plot of the story focuses on the genetic manipulation of bonobos to create perfect organ donors for high-rolling clients. But, as often happens, the science goes astray and the geneticist ends up creating a new genus of protohumans. At least in this story, it all ends up with a positive spin. The geneticist feels guilty for the inhumane use of his creations and destroys the lab: releasing the neanderthal-like humans into the wild forests of Equatorial Guinea. However, real life is often not so bloodless and cheery.
Most scientific explorers of the past have committed atrocious acts, all in the name of discovery. William Harvey, the man who discovered our heart is what pumps blood through the circulation of our bodies, dissected both his father and sister after their deaths. And towards animals, researchers can be even more heartless. I recall reading in Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers how one Russian scientist used dogs in his experiment on tissue rejection. Being a dog lover, I found it hard to stomach the sorts of operations he performed. I’ll spare you the majority of his studies but there’s one in particular I feel obligated to share. Animal testing isn’t all about drug trials or cancer research. Some of it can be quite crude and bloody. This particular scientist took the head and torso of a puppy and surgically connected it (while alive) to the chest of a full grown dog. He essentially “wired” their blood circulation together, testing to see whether such a feat was possible. I’m honestly not even sure what the point was of performing such an appalling experiment. The dogs were most likely conscious throughout the procedure because anesthetic wasn’t very developed at the time and it could have jeopardized the results. I’m just.... shocked. The pointless suffering just for idle curiosity, how is that humane? How is it benevolent? The study of medicine is supposed to to make the world a better place, not create more suffering.
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/dog-res-04.html
My last relation is one I made from personal research. A few years ago, I became intensely interested in the history of World War 2 and actually wrote a story based in the 1930s-40s. I wanted to have as many accurate details as possible and since a good portion was set in Auschwitz, I focused my research on the Nazi experiments and gathering of “scientific evidence” or racial in-equality. I remember discovering that much of our knowledge about hypothermia is a result of the SS tests in death camps. I hate to sound insensitive, but I’m glad we have the knowledge. I just wish that we had obtained it another way. But then I thought surely we’ve out-grown the need for such measures. The world as a whole learned what humans are capable of to each other so haven’t we mended our ways since then? I guess not, because in Earthlings there is a scene that depicts a hog being burned alive to test blistering and other bodily responses to heat extremes. It’s a different temperature extreme, it’s a different kind of being, but it’s still the same idea. What have we really learned in our past littered with bloodshed? I hate to be a “Debbie Downer,” but it looks like not much.
http://www.realtruth.org/articles/090929-006-europe.html
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