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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Let's think for ourselves

[Posted by Rick Marolt]

Last summer, a resolution to create a Citizens Advisory Panel to study the ethics and treatment of monkeys in laboratories in Madison was introduced to the Dane County Board of Supervisors.  Self-interested researcher David O'Connor argued before the Executive Committee of the Board that the study was unnecessary because a working group in England had declared in 2006 that experimenting on monkeys was ethical.  After the Board voted not to withdraw the resolution from committee, effectively "killing" the resolution, the new director of the National Primate Research Center at UW-Madison, Jon Levine, said: "Those driving this resolution issue simply don’t like the conclusions drawn in previous discussions — that biomedical research involving the humane use of animal subjects is ethical."

These statements rest on two fallacies.  Or more.

To read the full post, please go to One Shared Planet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny that Marolt asks for dialogue and debate but disables his comments section. I guess he made up his mind.

Rick B. said...

The comment section was not disabled.

I sometimes take a day or two to get to my email, but I approve all substantive comments, and many that aren't.