Experimental life forms.

Discussion in 'Science' started by cirdellin, Jul 17, 2020.

  1. cirdellin

    cirdellin Banned

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    What living things do you feel comfortable about sacrificing for the sake of science?

    Clearly hardly anyone has a problem with bacteria.

    But what about insects?

    Above this is where I draw the line because above that there is a level of sentience that makes me uneasy.

    How about you?
     
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  2. VotreAltesse

    VotreAltesse Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't have an universal answer, it depend of the experiences and the interest of the experience itself. Clearly I don't have a huge problem with rats.
    But for instance, if I would have troubles sacrificing monkeys for testing new shampoos or hair conditionner, I would have less for testing for instance potential treatment for alzheimer.
     
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  3. Diablo

    Diablo Well-Known Member

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    Well if you eliminated bacteria you'd die - they live in your stomach and help you digest food.
     
  4. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    I'm up for humans. Just harvest them way early before they can feel pain, for the genetic information and experiments.
     
  5. Diablo

    Diablo Well-Known Member

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    You're all heart.
     
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  6. cirdellin

    cirdellin Banned

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    What about the bacteria known to be deleterious to human health or the ones humans do not benefit from?

    To me the issues come down to sentience. This is why I favor abortion but not to the moment of birth of course.
     
  7. Diablo

    Diablo Well-Known Member

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    Antibiotics get them all.
     
  8. cirdellin

    cirdellin Banned

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    This is true but some people think that chimps that are the closest to us genetically are properly no different an experimental life form than E Coli.
    The idea is that if we can do it then it must be ok.
     
  9. WillReadmore

    WillReadmore Well-Known Member

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    The field of medical ethics is active, strongly promoted, taught at universities and continuously improving due to the efforts of science.

    The idea that science treats reasonably sentient life forms as if they are no more than E Coli just isn't the case.

    There IS product testing that is of concern. Even that is coming under strengthening limitations. Once it was common to test shampoo on the eyes of chimps. That wasn't science. And, it is strongly opposed.

    A recent case is that a group of scientists working on gene modifications using technology such as CRISPR chose to study the possibility that changes other than the targeted change might take place. They found that changes carefully targeting one gene could result in inadvertant changes in other places on a chromosome.

    The result is that limits on such genetic modifications are once again being strengthened.

    I know there is a wide range of concern about medical experimentation and testing. Some would refuse to allow the caging of rats - let alone anything further. And, they may have a case. And, they would hold to that in the face of the unbelievably powerful results that save or improve people's lives every day.

    However, let's not pretend that medical science doesn't give a crap about ethics.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2020
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  10. fmw

    fmw Well-Known Member

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    At least those that have yet to develop immunity to the antibiotics.
     
  11. Diablo

    Diablo Well-Known Member

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    Very true, and a major problem, caused by the over-use of antibiotics, not just in humans but as routine additives in animal feed. Some bugs are now immune to almost every antibiotic we have.
     
  12. fmw

    fmw Well-Known Member

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    Mess with Mother Nature only at your peril. Higher life forms evolve over millions of years. Single cell organisms can do it in a matter of weeks or months.
     
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