• Question: do you test on animals?

    Asked by thompsonfenwick1 to Gavin, Fiona, Justin on 20 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by daredevilsyl.
    • Photo: Gavin Devereux

      Gavin Devereux answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      Hello.

      No I don’t. All of my research has been performed using human (volunteer :-)) participants.

      It’s a common debate in science, about the ethics of research, so good question!

    • Photo: Fiona Hatch

      Fiona Hatch answered on 23 Mar 2012:

      Yep I use the heart from rats to see how they work and what goes wrong over time.

    • Photo: Justin Lawley

      Justin Lawley answered on 23 Mar 2012:

      No I don’t use animals in my research. I think the debate is probably around whether it is necessary to use animal or not. For example, Fiona has to use animals for her research because not many alive humans are willing to let you take out their hearts and see if it still beats in a dish. Some of the research in my area uses animals because it is so hard to measure what is going on in the brain of humans. But with the advance of technology (another science) we now have system whereby we can measure somethings in the human brain. Better yet the human is also able to give us a subjective experience of their illness like where it hurts and how much which is very difficult to get from a rate. Unless you are Dr. Doolittle of course.

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