THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020016
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 41 lines
Congratulations to Diane Tennant for penning one of the few responsible, informative and accurate articles in the entire national press regarding the animal experimentation controversy between AIDS activists favoring animal research and animal-rights activists opposing it (``AIDS activists protest PETA-backed animal-rights affair,'' June 21).
Ms. Tennant's depiction of the debate admits light as well as heat (for a change), clarifying that animal-rights activists do not oppose AIDS research per se, only inappropriate AIDS research conducted through animal research.
The AIDS-activist community itself is divided on this issue, not necessarily because of love of animals, but rather because they know that animal experimentation will fail to provide the knowledge required to save their lives and those of their loved ones.
San Francisco is an example of an AIDS-endemic city without a consensus in the gay community. ACT UP Golden Gate, led by Jeff Getty, opposes animal research, but Mr. Getty, having received a (failed) baboon bone-marrow transplant, seems nonobjective.
ACT UP San Francisco, on the other hand, contains activists passionately and vociferously opposed to animal use in AIDS research. These free-thinking individuals, along with PETA's own gay activists with AIDS, and other AIDS patients unimpressed by the track record of animal research, belie the popular press portrayal of the debate as between animal protectionists vs. scientists. In fact, doctors increasingly believe animal research to be scientifically unproductive and deserving of termination.
The medical critics of animal experimentation, AIDS activists and PETA members all know that our knowledge about the cause, course and treatment of AIDS comes from human clinical investigation - population studies, tissue culture and scanning techniques and biochemical analysis of human tissues - and urge amplification of these strategies in future research.
MURRY J. COHEN, M.D.
Co-chair
The Medical Research
Modernization Committee
Annandale, July 22, 1996 by CNB