Humane
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"Primum non nocere" (Latin) - Hippocrates. "First, do no harm."
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"Primum non nocere" (Latin) - Hippocrates. "First, do no harm."
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Real
progress: The following advances in medical progress have all been achieved without the use of non-human animals: Sanitation In
the mid to late 19th Century, death rates fell dramatically due to the decline
in infectious diseases, including TB, bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza, whooping
cough, measles, scarlet fever, diptheria, smallpox, cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea
and dysentry. However the mortality for each of these infections were declining
long before the introduction of antibiotics and immunization.
Instead they have been linked to public health measures and social
legislation that have improved the living standards of working people, and to
better understanding and availability of nutritional requirements. Surgery Surgery,
particularly for wounds of the heart and chest during the Second World War
became a common procedure, providing opportunity for many fundamental skills of
heart surgery to be developed. (The Wellcome Museum of the
History of Medicine (Science Museum, London, 1986) Lawson
Tait has been recognised as one of the most brilliant surgeons in history and
pioneered many of our present day surgical techniques. He was also a fierce
critic of vivisection. He was the
first to successfully perform a cholecystectomy (gall bladder operation),
removal of the appendix, operation on a case of ruptured ectopic pregnancy, and
many abdominal operations. He was also a strong proponent of cleanliness during
surgery, which during his time was not a common practice. (Lawson Tait, Transactions of
the Birmingham Philosophical Society, 20 April 1882) Anaesthesia Before
the discovery of anaesthetics, the best surgeons were those who could perform
painful operations in the shortest possible time. The introduction of
anaesthesia was therefore considered to be a huge medical advance. In
the 1840’s, laughing gas parties and ‘ether frolics’ were popular
entertainments amongst medical students. It was the recreational inhalation of
ether that prompted Dr Crawford Long to suggest it’s use for surgical
procedures. Further ‘partying’ led to the discovery of the properties of
chloroform and others. X-rays Discovered
by accident in 1895 by physics professor Wilhelm Rontgen. He was passing
electrical discharges through a partially evacuated glass tube when he
discovered by accident that highly penetrative but invisible rays were emitted
from the tube. By putting his own hand in the path of the rays he learned that
flesh but not bones was transparent to the rays. (K.
Walker, The Story of Medicine, Hutchinson, 1954) Recessions: The use
of the following drugs/procedures were delayed for many years due to the
misleading conclusions from animal-based research: Penicillin Discovered
by Fleming in 1928 who found that bacteria would not grow on a culture medium
accidentally contaminated by a mould. Even before this discovery however, mould
on damp cheeses were used to make a plaster for infected wounds.
Fleming lost interest in his discovery when a sample was injected into
rabbits and became deactivated by blood. Many
years later, the drug was resurrected by Oxford scientists Florey and Chain.
Fleming wished to inject penicillin into the spine of a dangerously ill patient
but the results of the administration were unknown. Florey tried the experiment
on a cat, but due to a shortage of time it was also administered to the patient
before the results of the cat test were available. The cat died, however the
patient’s health improved. Blood
transfusions Following
the discovery of blood circulation in 1666, Richard Lower transferred blood from
one dog to another. A year later, French physician Jean Denis transfused lambs
blood into a boy. After a number of
patients died following the procedure, and a lawsuit brought against the
Professor, no further attempts were made for more than a century. It wasn’t
until the early part of the nineteenth century that it was realised that
transfusions could only be sourced from human donors, and the method only became
safe after the discovery of the main blood groups by Karl Landsteiner in 1900.
The discovery was made by mixing human blood in test tubes and not through the
use of animals. (R.
McGrew, Encyclopaedia of Medical History, MacMillan Press, 1985) Digitalis The
beneficial effects of digitalis for the treatment of heart conditions were known
for many years however it’s widespread use was delayed because animal
experiments indicated a dangerous rise in blood pressure. (M.Beddow
Bayly, The Futility of Experiments on Living Animals, NAVS, 1962) Iron
Sorbitol Used
as a treatment for iron deficiency anaemia. It was originally injected into the
muscles of rats and rabbits and found to cause sarcomas at the site of
injection. 20 years after the initial research on rats it revealed no real
hazard during clinical experience. (M.
Weatherall, Nature, 387-390, 1 April 1982) Disasters: The
following drugs were all ‘successfully’ tested on animals, yet produced
widespread damage when applied to humans: Thalidomide Probably
the most infamous drug disaster, marketed in 1957 by Chemie Grunenthal, and in
1958 by the Distillers Company, as a sedative and to treat morning sickness in
pregnant women. Initially caused peripheral neuritis - numbness and cold, severe
muscular cramps, weakness of the limbs and lack of coordination. In the
following years it was found to cause damage to the human foetus, resulting in
10,000 children born crippled and deformed with missing limbs. Clioquinol The main
ingredient in Ciba Geigy’s anti-diarrhoea drugs caused an epidemic of disease
in Japan in the 1960s. It was banned in Japan in 1970 and then removed from the
world market in 1982 (12 years later!). At least 10,000 people, and possibly up
to 30,000, fell victim to SMON (subacute myelo-optic neuropathy), a disease
which causes numbness, weakness in the legs, paralysis, eye problems including
blindness, all due to nerve damage. (Lancet, 534, 5 March
1977) Eraldin Marketed
by ICI in the 1970s for the treatment of heart conditions it was thoroughly
tested on animals which gave no indication of the tragedy it would cause. Withdrawn in 1976 after it was found to cause serious eye
damage, including blindness, and 23 deaths. Over 1,000 patients received
compensation for the damage it caused. (G.R.Venning, British Medical
Journal, 199-202, 15 January, 1983) Isoprenaline
aerosol inhalers During
the 1960s at least 3,500 young British asthma sufferers died following it’s
use. (W.H.Inman in Monitoring for
Drug Safety, W.H.Inman, Ed., MTP Press Ltd, 1980) Opren An
arthritis drug introduced in 1980 by Eli Lilly after safely passing animal
tests. It was
withdrawn in August 1982 after being found to be highly toxic in humans, with
3,500 reports of harmful effects including 61 British deaths, mainly through
liver damage in the elderly.. (British Medical Jornal 459-460, 14 August, 1982) Zomax An
anti-inflammatory drug marketed in 1980 to treat post-operative pain. It was
withdrawn in 1983 after deaths from severe allergic reactions. (The
Guardian, 9 March 1983) Osmosin A
slow release drug to treat arthritis caused 40 deaths in the UK alone and was
withdrawn in 1983 after only ten months. (R.D.Mann,
Modern Drug Use, MTP Press Ltd., 1984) Flosint Marketed
by Farmitalia Carlo Erba, was withdrawn after 12 months after Britain’s
Committee on Safety of Medicines received reports of 217 adverse reactions. Zelmid Anti-depressant
drug marketed by Astra in 1982.Withdrawn in 1983 after 300 reports of adverse
reactions, including convulsions, liver damage, neuropathies and Guillain-Barre
syndrome. (R.D.Mann, Modern Drug Use, an
Enquiry on Historical Principles, MTP Press Ltd, 1984) Anti-inflammatory
drugs phenylbutazone and oxyphenbutazone are responsible for an
estimated 10,000 deaths worldwide. (Estimate by Dr Sidney Wolfe,
director of the Ralph Nader Health Research Group, Lancet, 353, 11
February, 1984) And
even more recently (July 2002), over nine million women worldwide who have been
prescribed Premarin as a hormone replacement therapy have now been advised that
it has been found to greatly increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease,
strokes and blood clots in the lungs. Premarin
was introduced in 1942 by Wyeth-Ayerst and is one of the most prescribed drugs
in the United States. In Australia,
300,000 women have been urged to seek advice from their doctor. (PETA
- www.menopauseonline.org/whi.html) This list is by no means exhaustive. It merely serves as a snapshot to illustrate how dangerously misleading the use of non-human animals can be in medical research when results are applied to human conditions. One can wonder how far we may have progressed had it not
been for the delays and deviations caused by animal-based research. |
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