The Evil Scientist

All biomedical scientists seem to have their own justification for animal research.

'The good of science, humanity, medicine'.

'Furthering our understanding of the world.'

'Helping rid the world of disease and disability.' etc etc. blah blah.

Let me deviate for a second. I don't think I do research to help other people. Selfish? Yes. Let me re-phrase. I would love to change the world, but I don't believe that my research will help anyone else in my lifetime. Having worked in research for 5 or so years now, I understand exactly how little can actually get done whilst those all-too-short '10 years until a cancer cure!' promises fly by. I'd like to help others, but I don't expect that I can.

So why do I do it? Knowledge I believe. I'd like to know things. And even more than that, I'd like to know that I have contributed knowledge. If my knowledge ever helps anyone else, then that would just be a massive mound of icing on a rather small mini-cupcake.

My PhD project requires me to use animals. I can't use human brains after all, as that would obviously be unethical (and perhaps counterproductive?) But when we're talking about animals, there's more of a grey area about using a grey matter.

I have my own justifications for animal research and they sure don't include any of these worldly 'excuses' mentioned above. I'm taking another creatures life to allow me to conduct research that I don't expect will help anyone anytime soon. What does that say about me?

I visited Vietnam recently, a country where people think very differently about animal welfare than we do. I can't judge people who are fighting the depths of poverty that communism has forced them into, for lacking an understanding of animal welfare. Human suffering aside, I saw birds trapped in tiny cages above polluted streets,  an entire fried dog lying on a table in a cafe, hundreds of fish suffocating in badly aerated tanks outside seafood restaurants, beaten dogs chained to fences in the sun with no water, and roosters waiting to be lead to a fight to the death in the name of gambling.

My justifications for animal research surely aren't better than anyone else's, but at least be it known that thanks to our strict ethical system, your typical lab rat should not not suffer in the hands of death.

Sure, I'm an 'evil scientist', you can judge me all you like, but I care about the animals too.