Philosophy - Index >
Testing - Index
Forwarded to SYITS:
J. David Jentsch (pronounced "Yench") uses primates in addiction studies.
Interestingly, the article written about him in the Los Angeles Times ends
with his saying that animals don't suffer the psychosocial pain that
underlies addiction. Jentsch has therein unwittingly cited and acknowledged one
of the arguments made by the animal rights movement!
Substance abuse is clearly an area of inquiry that lends itself admirably
to human clinical studies. People, unlike animals, can dialogue with the
examiner and discuss their experiences with addiction. Millions of dollars
squandered to make tweakers out of monkeys could be allocated for educational
and counseling programs to identify and address the socioeconomic and
psychodynamic underpinnings of addiction in populations at risk for use of
intoxicants.
Here are another couple of points. Jentsch claims in a radio interview
with Dr. Jerry Vlasak (see link below) that he needs to "sacrifice" a certain
number of animals to look at their brains and attempt to discover the
molecular changes that occur as a result of addiction. So, how long does it take
to do that? These vivisectors perform the same experiments repeatedly for
decades. And why don't they just autopsy the brains of deceased human
addicts?
To listen to the KPCC Radio interview with vivisector J. David Jentsch and
Jerry Vlasak, M.D., visit: _http://www.scpr. org/programs/ airtalk/_
(http://www.scpr. org/programs/ airtalk/ )
Vivisectors like to paint themselves as altruistic "doctors" searching for
"cures" for human ailments, but in reality they are simply psychopaths
drawn to a legal and remunerative avenue which channels their impulses to
torture and murder other living beings and serves to prop up the medical and
pharmaceutical industries as our poor diets, polluted environment, and
disastrous personal behaviors far outstrip our heritable predilections as
contributors to ultimate illness. Notice how there seems to be a plethora of
psychologists among their ranks. Animal abuse is one of the hallmark symptoms of
psychopathology. Another is the complete inability to empathize with the
suffering of other sentient beings while wailing with abject indignation when
the tables are turned.
The vivisectors also know that test data cannot be reliably extrapolated
from one species to another - no matter how "close" they are
phylogenetically. Most of our diseases are the result of faulty lifestyle choices.
Addiction, especially, is entirely volitional - and most people are well aware of
its untoward consequences before making the ruinous decision to flirt with
such a formidable adversary.
I also observe the saturation of the field with Jews. As a Jew, myself, I
must ask what we as a people have learned from - how we have morally
evolved as a result of - the Holocaust. The antebellum white landed gentry
believed that they were entitled to keep slaves because blacks were "inferior" to
whites. Adolph Hitler felt that he had the right to put 6,000,000 Jews
into gas chambers and ovens because Semites were "inferior" to Aryans. And
Jentsch perceives that he has a license to experiment on primates because
animals are "inferior" to humans.
Jentsch states that animals are not on a trajectory toward becoming fully
human. Neither is a retarded baby or a child with terminal cancer. Besides,
when it comes to suffering, we are all equal. How about the argument that
exploiting one group may do some good for another? Certainly free labor
benefited the Southern plantation owners and expropriating the worldly assets
of millions of European Jews was immensely profitable for the Nazis!
Vivisection is a morally repugnant, scientifically fraudulent, and
blatantly anachronistic method of research. It is both an animal rights and a
human rights issue. Jentsch harms both animals and people; he empirically has
the interests of neither at heart.
