Letters to the Editor
Sense and Sensitivity
Dear Madam,
James Carey (letters, 2nd March) is very loud in attacking medical research but is remarkably quiet when it boils down to telling us what we should use instead of animals to give hope to patients. Our opponents don’t even acknowledge that most veterinary medicines owe their existence to animal testing because this complicates their side of the argument.
My pet dog is treated for his diabetes with insulin exactly as a human patient but presumably I should just let him die rather than benefit from a treatment which has improved the welfare of humans and animals? I have to applaud Laurie Pycroft and his courage in standing up to the bullying of the animal extremists especially as he is only 16. It’s no accident that the majority of those who oppose the use of animals in medical research are perfectly healthy.
Let us hear more of animal extremists refusing life-saving treatments developed thanks to animals than the usual violence and intimidation. My own ambition is to see a cure or treatment for a rare genetic disorder called Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) which left my late girlfriend Lisa in a wheelchair when she was Laurie’s age. The disease destroys the central nervous system and Lisa lost her own battle for health when she was just twenty. I am sorry but I loved her far more than any animal.
I care far less for a rat in a cage than for a loved one in a hopsital bed and I think alleviating human suffering should be our priority. Having visited an animal laboratory for myself I know that the reality is a million miles from the emotional propaganda of the anti-vivisection movement. That said of course we all want alternatives to using animals because nobody actually likes using them. If your readers would like to help our crusade to put patients’ rights on the map please contact us.
Sincerely, Thomas Bromley
Patient’ Voice, PO Box 504, Bedforshire, LU5 5WS.
Gay Rites
Dear Madam,
Your article of 2nd March (‘Chaplains would bless Gay couples’) does neither surprise nor shock me, although I would have hoped our fine university might have escaped the instituitional moral cowardice within many parts of the Anglican Communion.
Could I ask the chaplains that would do such things what exactly they are blessing? And in whose name? May I further add, for those who were wondering, that the Catholic Chaplain to the University will not be blessing any homosexual ‘unions’.
Darren M. P. Collins,
Secretary to the Oxford University Catholic Society
Siding against the blunder dog
Dear Madam,
I was saddened to read Michael Buckworth’s letter in your 2 March edition.
This ‘risk management’ consultant’s words illustrate a profound misunderstanding of what the Pro-Test march was about, and also what we must fight against. Pro-Test does not aim to defend free speech and the right to live one’s life free of harrassment, though those are important rights. It exists to defend the centrality the human being in a rational social and political worldview, and to defend animal testing as necessary to the pursuit of scientific progress and human wellbeing.
Unfortunately the cowardly ‘keep your heads down’ attitude expressed by Mr Buckworth is exactly the one adopted by the government, by Cambridge University, by many scientists, pharmaceuticals companies, by this University and its colleges, and by many students.
Our aim is not to avoid ‘risk’, but to shoulder the risks inherent in the duties of good citizenship: to stand up for what we believe in, and to counter Speak and the ALF by making the right political arguments - not to cower in fear and shame, relying on coercive measures like legislation and arrests to do away with them.
Lee Jones
St Antony’s College
Badgered for Balliol
Madam,
As a member of the University, I was rather upset I did not receive any support after my ghastly accident - I was mauled by a badger in the grounds of Balliol. Where it came from I do not know - it simply pounced - suffice to say that I shall not be bell-ringing for some time to come. What with my dissertation coming up too, I am appalled more is not being done.
It is your responsibilty to highlight the danger posed by this fierce creature lest another poor soul is savaged.
Name and address witheld
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20th Apr 2006