Why PETA Is Against More Usual Diabetes Research
With a title like that, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out why PETEA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is against most diabetes research. It's because most diabetes research involves animal testing. After all of these years of testing on animals, do we really need to keep making them suffer for nothing? PETA argues that diabetes research testing could still be done on computers and stem cells rather than subject a living animal with an active nervous system to vivisection.
Putting Money Where Mouth Is
PETA doesn't just shout about anti-vivisection, they fund studies for animal (and people) free testing alternatives. In September of 2007, PETA gave $120,000 to the Duluth Quantitative Structure Activity Research (QSAR) International Foundation to Reduce Animal Testing in Duluth, Minnesota. Over the years, PETA has donated over $760,000 to fund such alternative research methods. Charity watchdogs have confirmed PETA's claims that over 80 cents of every dollar donated to them goes directly for programs to help end animal suffering.
But What Are The Alternatives?
Get ten scientists in a room and you'll get twenty different opinions on how best to handle medical testing. Although there are many who still insist animal testing for diabetes research is the only way to go, there are many voices who disagree because of the advanced technology we have today that was not available fifty years ago. These processes include:
Computer programs: Computers aren't smart - they just do stupid things really quickly. Computer programs can compensate for human error in observing animal specimens and can even mimic animal reactions. For example, human surgeon students now perform their first surgeries on computer pads that mimic skin. Since we have robot puppies and virtual toys, why not virtual patients?
Stem Cell Research: Stem cells don't tend to have nerves, so the chances of them feeling any suffering are pretty slight. Stem cell research can be used for all kinds of medical research, including diabetes research. This is a field where the potential hasn't been tapped yet.
In Vitro Testing: This is where you take a piece of skin or flesh (not the whole body), put it in a Petri dish and subject it to chemicals or whatever new diabetes research treatment you want and see what happens. It's called "in vitro" because this originally was a technique to keep embryos alive outside of mom's body. This can decrease the chances of complications from the differences between animal bodies and human bodies. Some drug complications happen only to humans, despite being tested on millions of animals.
