Regarding the recent article on AIDS vaccine research and chimpanzees:1 Animal rights activists are not the only people that regret that these types of studies have to be performed on these highly intelligent and emotional creatures. Not one of the researchers interviewed in this article mentioned any regret.
The story fails to mention the ultimate fate of the chimpanzees in the discontinued studies, who made a sacrifice for the Homo sapiens, albeit unwillingly. [Ed.: See previous story2] I think the profession could be more up front in pointing out the ultimate fate of these chimpanzees. Will they regrettably be destroyed for their trouble?
Insel does his profession a great disservice when he states that "the animal rights stuff would have almost no impact at all." He should consider that most people, even many scientists, have compassion for these primates. If Insel and Bende don't want to look like monsters, they ...
