More on Animal Research

Abstract

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderInbox1 Jan 2010More on Animal Research Shirley Charney Feldman Shirley Charney Feldman Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.IN4.15012010.38 SectionsAbout ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In I am writing to express my wholehearted agreement with Holly Openshaw’s letter in the Nov. 3, 2009, issue. I have actively opposed vivisection for years, and I was comforted to see that others in our profession are also concerned about this issue. As Openshaw stated, “…it is morally wrong to use animals as test subjects,” even if they are well-treated, which is often not the case. In fact, exposés on national television, as well as other sources, have been providing evidence of problems in the care of research animals for years, including outright abuse in some facilities. Unfortunately, USDA enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act is highly inconsistent. In addition to the ethical problem, the results obtained in non-human animal subjects are frequently not applicable to humans. In some cases, relying on these data has been seriously detrimental to human health (for example, the occurrence of birth defects in babies of mothers who were given the drug Thalidomide while pregnant). A final concern is that animal research is paid for with the limited funds that could be better spent on projects utilizing newer methodologies with higher validity for human patients. As a practicing SLP for more than 20 years, the results of non-human animal studies have never been relevant to my treatment of human patients. I look forward to the day when this outdated, inhumane, unreliable practice will be a part of history, like so many others once thought of as acceptable. Author Notes Shirley Charney Feldman, Montgomery Village, Md. Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 15Issue 1January 2010 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Jan 1, 2010 Metrics Downloaded 66 times Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagleader-topicsasha-article-typesCopyright & Permissions© 2010 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationLoading ...