Kenneth Meyer wrote:
>So what Vicki and others are asking me to do, is to allow children to
>be given vaccines, medicines, and other medical treatments that may
>or may not hurt/maim/kill them as they have not been tested on other
>living creatures before any human children receives those treatments?

Kenneth, I agree with you that some testing on animals is necessary,
and I do not object to the "necessary" testing, as long as it is done
humanly.

However, I believe what Vicki was referring to is not really animal
testing, but the use of ferrets as a training tool for teaching medical
personnel how to work with infants and premature infants. And, while
this was once a common practice at medical training facilities, it is
no longer used at the majority of medical schools. Simulators, such
as Gaumard's Premie HAL and PREMIE Blue, both designed to mimic a low
birth weight premature newborn, and Laerdal's SimNewB, are available
and widely used for pediatrics residency training.

Currently, only 7% of the medical training facilities in the US still
use ferrets. And, ferrets are not the optimal choice for training.
Anatomical and physiological differences between ferrets and humans
render this type of training suboptimal. Additionally, high-fidelity
simulators such as Gaumard's Premie HAL and PREMIE Blue accurately
replicate the airway of a premature newborn and allow for data
collection.

Anyway, it is this unnecessary use of ferrets in training pediatric
residences that is being discussed and objected to. The procedures are
often painful and/or harmful to the ferrets, and as previously stated,
completely unnecessary.

Again, I agree that some animal testing is necessary, and I don't think
that is what Vicki is objecting to.

Danee DeVore
ADV - If your ferret hasn't been tested, you don't know!
For more information visit:
<http://www.ferretadv.com> http://www.ferretadv.com
ADV - Find out how you can help:
http://help4adv.terrabox.com/

[Posted in FML 7173]