2009년 10월 14일
Medical researches using animals need to be continued, however, alternative solutions are required.
Bongsoo Park
Ph.D program in Integrative Bioscience, Bioinformatics and Genomics,the Huck institutes of the Life Science, the Pennsylvania State University, PA16802, USA
Many people in the world still are suffering from lots of diseases. Medical doctors and life scientists have tried to find the answers for the questions of life for a long time to solve the diseases, however, it takes a long time to discover cores. The best way to understand biology is to apply the accumulated knowledge to well organized experimental design and observe the result. Therefore, it has been very useful to use animals to understand human because of their physiological similarity to humans. Historically, a lot of scientific knowledge rapidly developed by actual experiments on human participants, however, it has been ethically very dangerous, and not easy to regulate. Although many computer simulation and technology keep changing the method of the research, the usage of animals for medical research still is the best way to understand human disease.
The question is how can we continue the animal research in ethical ways? While reading articles on animal subjects, I was surprised at many violations in the laboratories and institutions. In addition, the video clip on the case of University of Pennsylvania was shocking because of lots of abuses on the monkeys for the scientific discovery in the brain. They even seemed to be enjoying the experiments that were included lots of painful monkeys. Therefore, it is very important to make a rule to regulate those abuses, and make control system on the protocols in the laboratories. However, the point is that we cannot stop all animal research right now because there are a lot of benefits from the animal research on the medical purpose. Rat and mice have been used for studying on the physiology of human because of their closely related similarities to humans. Also, primates have been used to understand the AIDS, Malaria, and brain biology. Dogs and cats also widely used in many cases. The truth is that all medical research needs to have the basic motivation in improving human welfare not simply abusing the animal. The research on the animals is really important to improving the scientific knowledge as well.
The only solution is that we have to make very good regulation system. How can we make good regulation system or alternative solution to prevent animal abuses? First of all, this kind of ethical education needs to be continued to all people in the laboratories including faculties, staffs, and students. It needs to be repeatedly reminded the importance of the ethics on their research. It is true that ethical educators are very important and they need to work with other life scientist more closely. If there were lots of discussion and feedback, many researchers are likely to be more sensitive in ethical issues. Secondly, there need to be well-organized rules on animal usage on the medical purpose of the research. After giving an educating, the well-prepared rules need to be followed, so that researcher can keep in mind the basic rules. Third, we need to keep finding ways to use other organisms to study human organisms. I was glad to see the next year’s topic of genetic society meeting because conference topic is the finding model organisms to understand human biology. If we can find a better way to solve the human disease by using many micro-organism and animals with much small number of species, it will be possible to reduce the cases of abusing the animals. The fourth idea is that we will be using the knowledge of bioinformatics and genomics options such as computational modeling and applying it in virtual systems.
Ph.D program in Integrative Bioscience, Bioinformatics and Genomics,the Huck institutes of the Life Science, the Pennsylvania State University, PA16802, USA
Many people in the world still are suffering from lots of diseases. Medical doctors and life scientists have tried to find the answers for the questions of life for a long time to solve the diseases, however, it takes a long time to discover cores. The best way to understand biology is to apply the accumulated knowledge to well organized experimental design and observe the result. Therefore, it has been very useful to use animals to understand human because of their physiological similarity to humans. Historically, a lot of scientific knowledge rapidly developed by actual experiments on human participants, however, it has been ethically very dangerous, and not easy to regulate. Although many computer simulation and technology keep changing the method of the research, the usage of animals for medical research still is the best way to understand human disease.
The question is how can we continue the animal research in ethical ways? While reading articles on animal subjects, I was surprised at many violations in the laboratories and institutions. In addition, the video clip on the case of University of Pennsylvania was shocking because of lots of abuses on the monkeys for the scientific discovery in the brain. They even seemed to be enjoying the experiments that were included lots of painful monkeys. Therefore, it is very important to make a rule to regulate those abuses, and make control system on the protocols in the laboratories. However, the point is that we cannot stop all animal research right now because there are a lot of benefits from the animal research on the medical purpose. Rat and mice have been used for studying on the physiology of human because of their closely related similarities to humans. Also, primates have been used to understand the AIDS, Malaria, and brain biology. Dogs and cats also widely used in many cases. The truth is that all medical research needs to have the basic motivation in improving human welfare not simply abusing the animal. The research on the animals is really important to improving the scientific knowledge as well.
The only solution is that we have to make very good regulation system. How can we make good regulation system or alternative solution to prevent animal abuses? First of all, this kind of ethical education needs to be continued to all people in the laboratories including faculties, staffs, and students. It needs to be repeatedly reminded the importance of the ethics on their research. It is true that ethical educators are very important and they need to work with other life scientist more closely. If there were lots of discussion and feedback, many researchers are likely to be more sensitive in ethical issues. Secondly, there need to be well-organized rules on animal usage on the medical purpose of the research. After giving an educating, the well-prepared rules need to be followed, so that researcher can keep in mind the basic rules. Third, we need to keep finding ways to use other organisms to study human organisms. I was glad to see the next year’s topic of genetic society meeting because conference topic is the finding model organisms to understand human biology. If we can find a better way to solve the human disease by using many micro-organism and animals with much small number of species, it will be possible to reduce the cases of abusing the animals. The fourth idea is that we will be using the knowledge of bioinformatics and genomics options such as computational modeling and applying it in virtual systems.
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