As my wife and I are finally back in the same zip code it is time to go see the newest Planet of the Apes movie, so it was with amusements I saw this article this morning.
Bartlett: Ban research on chimps
By: Jennifer Epstein
August 11, 201106:05 AMEDT
In an impassioned plea, a Maryland congressman is arguing that the U.S.should ban scientific testing on primates, saying modern technology has made it unnecessary to subject “these magnificent and innocent animals” to pain and imprisonment.
Writing on the op-ed page of Thursday’s New York Times, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a Republican, says that “Americans can no longer justify confining these magnificent and innocent animals to traumatic invasive research and life imprisonment.”
Bartlett, a former physiologist at the Navy’s School of Aviation Medicine, says that while he conducted tests on squirrel monkeys that helped send men to the moon safely and “believed such research was worth the pain inflicted on the animals,” he has since changed his mind.
He wrote that he can no longer support the kind of research that he conducted for years because “our understanding of its effect on primates, as well as alternatives to it, have made great strides, to the point where I no longer believe such experiments make sense — scientifically, financially or ethically.”
Because of his changed view,Bartlett has come together with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to introduce the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which would phase out invasive primate research and retire the 500 federally owned chimpanzees in labs to sanctuaries.
While I am a big softie, like Senator Cantwell, when it comes to treatment of animals, it would be nice if the Senator had the same sympathy for experimentation on human beings (she is a big supporter of human embryonic stem cell experimentation.) The pro-life (and lovably cantankerous, not unlike Charlton Heston) Rep. Bartlett though deserves praise for stopping a future that could look like this: