Jun 22, 2006

If I were a rat...


Douglas Adams in his enlightening series Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tought us that humans are only the third most intelligence lifeforms on Earth, dolphins are the second and in the top of the rank stand... the rats. He also tought us that these tiny little animals are just tridimensional protrusions of pandimensional superintelligent creatures from which our dear Earth is just a complex experiment. In summary, we don't experiment with rats, they experiment with us.

Don't you believe? Take a look on these news

Cancer destroyed by antibody 'triple whammy'
Clearing protein 'smokescreen' helps battle cancer
Diabetes gene therapy carried by 'bubbles' in the blood
Stem Cells Help Repair Rats' Paralysis
Alzheimer's vaccine shows success in mice
Engineered virus thwarts ovarian cancer in mice

As you may see, without making any efforts, just relying on our "voluntary" work, rats are immune to cancer, can be cured of diabetes, Alzheimer and even paralysis! Okay, sometimes there are very bizarre experiences like the one they made with the poor rodent in the above picture, but the payoffs are high. In the course of getting from us the question for the Answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe and Everything (which, by the way, is 42), they're getting smarter, longlived and healthier (much more than us). And of course here are a lot of and making movements to forbid cruel experiments with mice. How they manipulate us!

And I couldn't even find most of the headlines I have already read about them! Although human medicine does not have the cure for a lot of conditions, rat medicine can cure almost everything! And even when these cures filter to our humble human community, rats got them years ahead of us.

Now, serious. Although sometimes there are options to experiments with animals, specially with mice, sometimes there aren't. We humans don't know biology enough to simply run computer simulations to test treatments to diseases, reactions to drugs and new kinds of surgeries. If experiments with animals can lead to the cure of cancers or Parkinson, the only thing we can do is to minimize suffering of the animals, but these are matters of life and death and, unfortunately, if I had to choose between my mother and 100 rats, I'd rather be with her. Sorry but it is the truth.

Picture: er... do not remember... if someone knows where this comes from I would be grateful.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well... I'll kill a rat for free anyway... so I guess it's better if it's done for a good cause...

Osame Kinouchi said...

Dilemma: You must choose between the last couple on Earth of dolphins or your daugther to survive. Who you choose? Why?

Roberto said...

As you know, as dolphins are the second most intelligent species in Earth, even if the couple are the last on the planet there should have much more on the outer space. :)

Honestly, I'm not a father yet, but I suppose that one (who love his daughter) would find it an easy question to answer. I don't know. You're a father. What is your opinion?