本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛their symptoms are simulated using »model organisms«. For instance, in order to induce Parkinson’s disease, monkeys, rats or mice are injected with a neurotoxin that destroys brain cells. Cancer is induced in mice by means of genetic engineering or injecting cancer cells. Cerebral strokes are caused in mice by inserting a thread into a cerebral artery. Diabetes in rats is caused by injecting a toxin that destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Heart attacks are simulated in dogs by constricting a coronary artery with a noose.

The artificially induced symptoms have nothing in common with the human disorders they are supposed to simulate. Important aspects of the origins of the disorders, such as diet, lifestyle habits, drug consumption, harmful environmental influences, stress, and psychological and social factors, are not taken into consideration. The results of studies using animals are therefore misleading and irrelevant.

In fact, research based on animal experimentation repeatedly fails all along the line. 92% of potential pharmaceutical drugs that are shown by animal testing to be effective and safe do not pass clinical trials (5), either because of insufficient effectiveness or undesired side effects. Of the 8% of substances that are approved, half are later taken off the market because grave, often even lethal side effects in humans become evident. (6)

For instance, the »invention« of the cancer mouse was believed to be the long-sought key to combating malignant tumours. In the mid eighties, researchers at the Harvard University succeeded in inserting a human cancer gene into the genome of mice, so that the rodents prematurely developed tumours. This genetically engineered mouse was even the first mammal to be patented, in the USA in 1988 and in Europe in 1992. Since then, tens of thousands of cancer mice have been »cured«, but all the treatments that were »successful« in rodents failed in humans.

Animal experimental research regularly announces breakthroughs with all kinds of disorders. Animal testing supposedly proved this or the other method of treatment to be successful in combating Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer, atherosclerosis, etc.. However, the hopes of the afflicted patients are almost always disappointed, and the celebrated miracle cures are never heard of again. Humans just aren’t mice.

Scientific studies are increasingly casting doubt on the benefits of animal experiments. They prove that the results of animal tests often do not correlate to the insights gained from humans, and that animal experiments are often irrelevant to the clinical application for humans.

In an English meta-study the results of different treatment methods on experimental animals and patients based on the relevant scientific publications were compared. Only three of the six disorders investigated delivered correlations, the remaining half did not. (7)

In a further comparative study a British research team determined that the results of studies conducted on both animals and humans often differ quite considerably. According to the study, the inexact results of animal experiments can endanger patients and are also a waste of research funding. (8)

In a German study, 51 applications for animal experiments that were approved in Bavaria were analysed with regard to their clinical implementation. The research team discovered that even ten years later not one single project had been demonstrably implemented in human medicine. (9)

Animal experimentation is not only useless, it is even harmful. It implies security that does not exist, and the false results it delivers only impede medical progress.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net