Animal Experiments

More than four million animal experiments are carried out yearly in Britain. They have given rise to much controversy.

"The last two decades," says Sir William Paton, professor at Oxford, "have seen the development of drugs for high blood pressure, cancer, and so on. Without animal experiments we would have had none of these."

Brigid Brophy, a hard supporter for total forbidding of animal experiments, faces this issue firmly. "The loss that might result is a loss human beings would have to bear." She says. "We would not experiment on 10 children to find a cure for a disease that would save the lives of a thousand. If we gave up experiments on other animals we might have to bear more losses of that kind. But I think the scientists could come up with alternatives."

But how many people would accept the death of a single child if animal experiments could save it?

"The question is not 'Can they reason?' nor 'Can they talk?' but, 'Can they suffer?'" says Claud Barnard, a story writer. "People will always defend animal experiments on the grounds that animals are not rational, thinking creatures. Neither is a severely disabled person. The same people will then say that if you were to experiment on a disabled person it would be upsetting for their families. So why shouldn't we use a severely disabled child who also has no parents? The human model will always serve our purposes better than an animal. If you don't accept this, then logically you should not accept experiments on non-human animals."

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Brigid Brophy believe scientists could do?
2. What is the reason given by the people who defend animal experiments?
3. What does the "this" in the last paragraph refer to?
4. What is Claud Barnard's idea about animal experiment?
5. What is the conclusion on the argument on whether we should experiment on animals?

(Keys.)