Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MichaelSkyy who wrote (106140)	3/26/2005 9:28:42 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793914

Speaking of Columbia U and pain.... Where are the PETA folks on Terri's situation?? They were certainly vocal here... Where pain can lead to progress The deep divide over the merits of animal research rages on at a venerable New York medical institution newsday.com BY BRYN NELSON STAFF WRITER September 26, 2004 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Inducing a baboon stroke For these patients, death or long-term disability can result from a breakdown in the network of blood vessels beyond the blockage and an expanding zone of oxygen-starved brain cells - akin to a perforated garden hose that develops a kink and leaves downstream plants with a mere trickle of water. In his research proposal - officially titled Experimental Protocol 2860.02 - Connolly sought to answer whether drugs might limit this downstream microvascular failure by protecting the brain's blood vessels and neurons from damage. Experiments in mice had suggested he was on the right track. And so Connolly turned to young adult male baboons, whose brain anatomy closely resembles that of humans. Experimentally inducing a stroke in a baboon is not for the faint of heart. According to Connolly's research protocol, it requires veterinary surgeons to clamp several major arteries that deliver blood-borne oxygen to the baboon's brain. To access those vessels, surgeons first anesthetize the baboon and remove its left eye, along with residual fat and muscles lining the eye socket. Then, using a high-speed drill, the surgeons remove bone segments forming the back of the socket. Finally, they remove two of the brain's outer coverings to reveal the inner arteries. Connolly asked permission to induce strokes in 60 baboons by clamping their arteries for an hour. Thirty would receive one of three experimental drugs intravenously, including a derivative of Vitamin C called dehydroascorbic acid, and 30 would instead receive a placebo. Each baboon would be euthanized either three or 10 days later, and its brain examined to gauge the drug's effect. In March of 2000, Columbia University's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee signed off on the project - just one of the dozens of animal experiments the review board would pore over that year. Some 4½ years later, however, Experimental Protocol 2860.02 has become a flash point. After holding an initial press conference last fall, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) launched a publicity blitz earlier this year against the perceived cruelty of Connolly and two other Columbia scientists conducting separate experiments on baboons and rhesus macaque monkeys. PETA supporter and political humorist Bill Maher sent Columbia's faculty and staff a mass e-mail in May, urging them to oppose the research. Protesters disrupted the university's graduation ceremony in June. An elaborate Web site appeared, labeling the researchers "Columbia's Death Squad" and including a video of caged primates at the university. "This Columbia case is especially poignant because of the incredible suffering - it's the suffering of those primates in these laboratories that has really compelled us to push hard on Columbia to clean up its act," said Mary Beth Sweetland, PETA's director of research and investigations.<<<<<<<<<< Cont'd at link above=======>