vivisection
...elieve that vivisection is largely responsible for the increased life expectancy that humans now enjoy. Here it must be noted that over the last century, in at least sixty-five of the Nobel prizes awarded for medicine, animal research ``played a key role.'' To answer why a treatment or disease behaves as it does, research using different methods, vivisection included, are sometimes necessary. Basic research is not curiosity run amok. It is the channel of a disciplined curiosity with a clear purpose. Data from stressed animals ruin experiments and are useless to researchers as they cannot be used to make new and effective products. Researchers get rich from products that work. New and effective products generate cash. Hence researchers go to extremes to see that the animals are not stressed. Lab animals are often treated as well as or better than household pets. Researchers see to it that labs are regulated and are kept at high standards. Animals used for research are bred and raised in labs. They are unfamiliar with other environments. Stress arising from unfamiliar surroundings claimed by activists does not arise. Laboratory dogs, for example, are not necessarily stressed by having daily blood tests along with their lunch and exercise, when this has been their life's experience. There will always be some people who do not behave ethically. Abuse is not limited to lab animals. Pets, zoo animals, farm animals, and even wild animals are abused by humans. This is a case for the police to handle and not and a case to be used against vivisection. Activists also argue that human biology and animal biology are not interchangeable. True but certain systems are alike enough to transfer data and draw conclusions for the other species. Lastly the question on why humans are not used in place of animals. This is because of our social obligations. We are more obligated to feed our own children than to feed those who live across town. We are more obliged to feed our pets than the stray dog in the parking lot. We are more obligated to help a homeless person than a homeless animal. This is because of ou...