Patrick J Battuello

Archive for the ‘Monkeys’ Category

Stealing Organs: The Immorality of Xenotransplantation

In Animal Experimentation, Baboons, Monkeys, Pigs, Xenotransplantation on August 4, 2010 at 11:04 am

“We have to be frank about this: We are exploiting these pigs.” (Dr. David White, former director of research at Imutran in England)

“Generally speaking, our society and our government is at least giving the impression that it’s becoming more sensitive to the welfare needs of animals and we all hope that sensitivity and compassion will develop. But with xenotransplantation, it’s a sort of massive blow to that sense of progression. It’s a step into the Dark Ages. It may look really nice and scientific and clean, but in terms of what we’re actually doing to animals, it’s barbaric.” (Dr. Dan Lyons, expert on British animal research policy)

Xenotransplantation is the transfer of cells, tissues, or whole organs from one species to another. More specifically, animal parts harvested for the good of humanity. The technology is not, at present, practical. Xenozoonoses (infectious diseases transmitted to the recipient, perhaps an AIDS II), hyperacute rejection (the immune system attacking the new organ as foreign), and infections (the immunosuppressive drugs, designed to combat rejection, leave the body susceptible) are not so insignificant hurdles.

The first kidney xenografts (from chimps) were reported in 1963, and a year later the first heart (chimp again) was xenotransplanted. The longest cardiac success came in 1984 with the Baby Fae case. Baby Fae received a baboon heart at infancy and survived for three weeks. Ironically, Time ran an essay by Charles Krauthammer in which he decried the exploitation of the baby (the surgeons, knowing it would fail, used her as a guinea pig), not the baboon. In 1984, the modern animal rights movement was in its nascent stage. There were protests, but the debate was largely over Baby Fae’s dignity and the biological integrity of the human race.

In the late 1990’s, Imutran (a subsidiary of Novartis, the pharmaceutical giant) conducted grisly experiments at the Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratories in England. The scientists grafted genetically-modified (to create a human-like organ) pig hearts into baboons and cynomolgus monkeys. The goal was twofold: first, a marketable xenograft for human use; and second, development of the critical immunosuppressants (hence, Novartis funding the research). Internal documents were leaked to the animal rights group Uncaged Campaigns in early 2000, and a report detailing the research (Imutran sued to block and lost) soon followed.

The 50 or so baboons were kidnapped in Africa, and the 400-600 monkeys were purchased from Asian breeders and transported to England in small metal cages. Most of the baboons had pig hearts transplanted into their necks and abdomens (i.e., not life-supporting). The majority of the monkeys had their own kidneys removed and replaced with one pig kidney (they were life-supporting but abnormally positioned). All of the animals died. The documents revealed collusion between the British government and Imutran to suppress troublesome details. These descriptions of post-surgery come directly from the researchers’ logs:

quiet and huddled…body and head tremors…large vomit in cage…exhibits discomfort when moving…no use of right arm…right arm badly swollen and bruised…skin broken and oozing blood…collapsed on cage floor…very laboured breathing…extreme difficulty trying to walk…holding neck…animal picking at transplant site…keeps holding area where transplanted heart is…yellow fluid seeping from site…animal showing obvious discomfort…uncoordinated limb spasms…retching and salivating…bloody discharge from penis…observed shivering…periodic severe tremors…extreme difficulty breathing, vocalising…died prior to sacrifice…sacrificed for humane reasons

While some died from technical failures within 24 hours, most lingered for 13-99 days before succumbing to infection, rejection, or toxicity. Imutran’s research was discontinued (and moved to the U.S.) largely as a result of Uncaged’s disclosure. In an interview with Frontline, Dan Lyons said: “One of the most unfortunate animals had a piglet heart transplanted into his neck. …for several days he was holding the heart. It was swollen. It was seeping blood, it was seeping pus… He suffered from body tremors, vomiting, diarrhea. And the animal just sat there. I think living hell is really the only sort of real way you can get close to describing what it must be like to have been that animal in that situation.”

In order to produce workable xenografts, the above cited experiments are necessary. Armed with that knowledge, we must ask: How much suffering and destruction is acceptable in the pursuit of medical progress? For me, the answer is simple. The exploitation of the weak and the voiceless is always immoral, no matter the species. We do not harvest the organs of small children or the mentally enfeebled (i.e., those intellectually comparable to apes and pigs) because they are us. Speciesism defined. Other sentient beings are not resources to be carved and plucked. Support mechanical devices, become an organ donor, and bequeath your body to education. That is the least we can do.

Harry Harlow’s Pit of Despair

In Animal Experimentation, Monkeys on June 13, 2010 at 11:02 pm

“Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research.” (George Bernard Shaw)

The Pit of Despair is what Harry Harlow, psychologist and University of Wisconsin professor, called his isolation chamber for rhesus monkeys. Harlow and his graduate students were studying the effects of social deprivation on primates during the 60’s and 70’s in an attempt to glean new insight into human depression. In an initial experiment, monkeys were either partially isolated (they could see, smell, and hear others) but afforded no physical contact, or totally isolated (complete deprivation) from their peers. The partial monkeys would stare blankly, repetitively circle in their wire cages, or self-mutilate. For the totally isolated, allow Harlow to explain:

No monkey has died during isolation. When initially removed from total social isolation, however, they usually go into a state of emotional shock, characterized by … autistic self-clutching and rocking. One of six monkeys isolated for 3 months refused to eat after release and died 5 days later. The autopsy report attributed death to emotional anorexia. … The effects of 6 months of total social isolation were so devastating and debilitating that we had assumed initially that 12 months of isolation would not produce any additional detriment. This assumption proved to be false; 12 months of isolation almost obliterated the animals socially …

Obliterated.

Reintroduced to other monkeys, they were badly bullied. Two refused to eat and starved themselves to death. Unable to have normal sexual relations, Harlow created a rape rack (again, his phrase) in order to study the effects of isolation on parenting skills.

Deborah Blum, author of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection, quotes Harlow: “Not even in our most devious dreams could we have designed a surrogate as evil as these real monkey mothers were.” One mother chewed off her baby’s feet and fingers, another crushed her baby’s head. The researchers withheld intervention in the greater interest of scientific inquiry.

Yet Harlow was not satisfied. He wanted to create the darkest depths of depression. He wanted his monkeys to feel helpless and desperate, to create despair. Only then, could he study therapeutic techniques designed for humans. And so, three month-old monkeys who had already bonded with peers were kept in total, dark isolation for 3-12 months. Harlow:

Most subjects typically assume a hunched position in a corner of the bottom of the apparatus. One might presume at this point that they find their situation to be hopeless. In our study of psychopathology, we began as sadists trying to produce abnormality. Today we are psychiatrists trying to achieve normality and equanimity.

Sadists.

William Mason, a student participant, said (Blum, The Monkey Wars) that Harlow “kept this going to the point where it was clear to many people that the work was really violating ordinary sensibilities, that anybody with respect for life or people would find this offensive. It’s as if he sat down and said, ‘I’m only going to be around another ten years. What I’d like to do, then, is leave a great big mess behind.’ If that was his aim, he did a perfect job.”

This groundbreaking research was partially funded by taxpayers. Psychological experiments similar to these are still conducted on college campuses today, often motivated by federal grant money and/or academic ego. Some are redundant, while others cannot be extrapolated for human use. Torturing animals in these grisly experiments, regardless of potential scientific progress, should be an affront to all thoughtful and compassionate people. On a more positive note, Gene Sackett, a Harlow student, believes that the Harlow deprivation studies helped to create the modern animal liberation movement.

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