Heart surgeon Michael DeBakey is outraged because of a question on the SAT tests, the correct answer to which suggests that there is some abuse of animals in scientific research, and that concern about the problem is long overdue (The Scientist, Sept. 16, 1991, page 3).
The fact is that scientists themselves have voiced concerns. In 1952, Robert Gesell, then chairman of the department of physiology at the University of Michigan, said at a meeting of the American Physiological Society: "Consider what we are doing in the name of science," and pointed out the worst abuses. These experiments were defended by the National Society for Medical Research, now called the Foundation for Biomedical Research, of which DeBakey is chairman.
In 1977, the Federation of American Scientists' Public Interest Report pointed out that no restraints comparable to those imposed when medical science is practiced on humans "operate to remind the animal...
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