Pigs used in controversial research

[Catherine]

Quote:Your questions are very pertinent and raise extremely serious ethical issues. The thought of lab animals being killed and then revived, over and over again, is morally repugnant. That would make their "lives" into an endless circle of forced killing followed by forced reanimation. The thought sends a chill down my spine.

This is the horror story side of this research. It could actually happen.
They stop and start hearts of lab animals. Why not stop and start the whole body.

On the other hand, if a person, who is newly dead from drowning or electric shock, is not really completely dead, we would want to restore them.
We might be ethically obligated to restore them.

Blood transfusions were a big break through. We have saved many lives through transfusions. Humans voluntarily give blood to save lives.
There have been stories of retired greyhounds being kept as blood donors. I know we did a post on it.

http://www.animalloverswebforum.com/show...greyhounds

This is the negative side of blood donation. 
Any new breakthrough can have a negative side.
We need to make sure our ethics line up with our practices.

I can think of many ways this could benefit us. It could be such a lifegiving breakthrough.
I can also think of all the horrible unethical ways this could be used.
It will most certainly be available to the rich  before it is available to  the rest of us. 
It might make it easier to traffic in organs for transplant. It already does happen, but this would make it easier.

In all this, the lab animals will be the losers. It will make some scientists even more interested in doing research on animals.
We are trying to reduce and end research on animal. this will lead to many more years and many more animals.

This isn't going to go away so we will need to look for answers before we are overwhelmed by the questions it raises.