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Animal Rights Group Targets NIH Director's Home (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Late last month, hundreds of people in two Washington, D.C., suburbs received a letter in the mail claiming that one of their neighbors was tied to animal abuse at a government lab. Science has learned that the letters, sent by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), targeted U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins and NIH researcher Stephen Suomi, revealing their home addresses and phone numbers and urging their neighbors to call and visit them. The tactic is the latest attempt by the animal rights group to shut down monkey behavioral experiments at Suomi's Poolesville, Maryland, laboratory, and critics say it crosses the line.
Typical human arrogance.
We are so much better than every other living entity to the point that we are the only ones who have a right to exist at all. Right?
I think that crossing the line would actually be for the same experiments done on the animals instead be performed on humans. And do you know why that would be crossing the line? Because the experiments would be deemed unethical if performed on a human... See how easy that is? Simply ask the question: would this be ethical if I forced a fellow human being to endure this? No? Well you shouldn't do it then.
A little awareness is hardly crossing the line.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
The problem with that thinking is we shouldn't fight injustices by whatever means are at our disposal if they are illegal. Should have the civilian freedom fighters in France during WW2 have complied with the law of the day because the Nazi's took over? Or should they have let the Jews be murdered cause it was illegal to help them escape France?
It is possible what they did was in error, but I certainly don't criticize them for taking *real* action on the issue. Most people just ignore the problems they see around them because they'll gain nothing or are otherwise brainwashed.
I think in life we have to accept some peoples actions will be mildly harmful to others, but are extremely beneficial to a small or large group of others. I think that is the case here. I think the same applies to most crime. We do little to improve the situation and retribution is never ethical- be it done through the legal system or otherwise.