Of the Mice that Saved Men

My AP Biology textbook is full of detailed explanations of important experiments that I must memorize, but I soon realized that nobody cares about the mouse.  Biologists use this little varmint all the time in experiments, much to the dismay of PETA.  One experiment comes up particularily in my mind; Griffin's experiment on bacterial transformation.  In this groundbreaking procedure, Griffin used the pneumonia bacteria on mice, and many mice died.  But from this experiment, so many lives have been saved.  Now, scientists can use bacteria to harvest insulin and help diabetics live normal lives.  This video shows PETA's stance on experimentation on rats and mice.

However wrong this practice is, we cannot, as one commentor so intelligently put it "expiroment with yourself" as scientists.  In order to save lives, human lives, scientists have to choose.  In addition, scietists also cannot "expiroment with prisoners, people from jail, where those so called "scientist" should be" because those people are human.

Amid this debate is the idea that a human life is worth more than an animal one.  I have 3 beautiful, wonderful, lovely dogs, who I love to death.  If there was a fire in my house and I could save either one dog or my mother, I obviously would choose my mother.  If it was between a dog and another person who I didn't even know, I would choose the person every time, no matter if the person was the worst person alive.  Why?  Because human life is something beyond the animal.  The moment we were given a soul, the moment we knew ourselves and the high "Moral Law", we became more important than animals.  I don't say this out of pride of my humanity.  What is there to be proud of?  We managed to overpopulate the Earth, make ourselves fat, and allow our selfish impulses to rule our lives.  And yet, there is some consciousness of having been chosen, some intangible feeling of innate superiority that we can sense.

Experimenting on animals is not right, and an alternative should be sought.  HOWEVER, as long as that option is our only option, scientists should be allowed to continue experimenting on the mice and rats for lifesaving technologies.  Now, companies shouldn't be allowed to keep animals to test shampoo and other things on, but in the name of life, this option looks better.

Griffin's mice died a sickly death of pneumonia, but in the end, they have saved thousands, possibly millions of people. If Griffin hadn't been allowed to experiment on the mice, we would still be trying to harvest second-grade insulin from slaughtered livestock and telling people that there simply isn't enough for them.