NON HUMAN RIGHTS : BRIEFING

 

You urged Western countries to increase neurological experimentation on primates to keep pace with China and Japan, arguing that brain diseases are becoming a leading human killer and monkey brains closely resemble our own. [  '' Monkey business '', July 24th, 2021 ]

Non-human primates, from chimpanzees and gorillas to marmosets and macaques, all share many exquisite mental facilities with humans.

Indeed, this is what makes non-human primates attractive to researchers. However, implanting machinery in their brains remains an undeniably brutal procedure that causes them to suffer immensely, as would humans.

You said that Western countries will inevitably have to choose between accepting therapies produced from non-human primate brain experiments or rejecting them on principle.

This is not a new problem, and the argument shortchanges ethical alternative methods that show promise of being superior to animal experiments. Moreover, the scientific literature is replete with duplicate and non-reproducible primate brain studies that suggest the value of these experiments is less than the animal-research community claims.

The important lesson will not be expressed in the firing neurons of tortured monkeys, but in finding ways to advance human health while also respecting the lives and rights of non-human primates.

The World Students Society thanks Kevin Schneider, Executive Director, Nonhuman Rights Project,  New York.