| Courtesy CCF
mailing list. |
November 9, 2007 |
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Are
Painkillers “Ethical”? Let’s Ask PETA…
Two weeks ago, People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) president Ingrid
Newkirk was spotted giving an interview at a film festival in the
Hamptons. With
a bright blue cast on her right forearm. On PETA’s blog, she
later explained how she broke her wrist:
Just as I was setting out to launch my new book, Let’s
Have a Dog Party!, I met a wet floor and went splat, neatly
snapping the bones in my wrist. Ooh,
the pain! Thank goodness for IV drips. Lying on the emergency room
gurney …
Where to begin?
It’s possible that Newkirk’s wrists were
unusually fragile because her vegan diet (with no dairy
foods) rendered her calcium-deficient.
Setting that aside, we agree that IV (intravenous) drips of
painkillers are a good thing. And we don’t know which drug she was
on, assuming it didn’t come from PETA’s
“Let's Have a Dog Party!” tackle box. But the most commonly
prescribed IV painkillers, fentanyl
and meperidine
(Demerol), have both been extensively tested on animals.
In fact, the IV drip mechanism itself was tested
on several species of animals during the 1930s, during the
development of techniques for surgical anaesthesia. We’re betting
Newkirk’s ER visit was chock full of such “ethical” compromises.
For more information about how animals are responsibly used to test
the safety and effectiveness of commonplace medical miracles, click here,
here,
and here.
Ingrid Newkirk, you may recall, once told a reporter
that “even
if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we’d be against
it.” Fair enough. But there’s a big difference between talking
the talk and walking the walk.
Add Ingrid Newkirk to the list of hypocritical
animal-rights leaders who let their principles slide when push comes
to shove. Others include insulin-diabetic PETA Vice President Mary
Beth Sweetland, hepatitis-C carrying PETA spokesbimbo Pamela
Anderson, and breast-cancer survivor Simon
Chaitowitz of the animal-rights Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine. Like Newkirk, these three
women owe their lives to medical research that required the use of
animals.
It would be nice if they were in the habit of thanking
scientists instead of attacking them.
Breaking News
Here's a sampling of other stories that have caught our interest
today. To see a one-week archive of these items, click here.
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