Leonard Thompson Biography

We’re Alive, Thanks to… A Dog?!?!

In January of 1922, Dr. John Macleod walked into a small high-ceilinged room surrounded by crisp white walls and a small blue cot. On that cot lay a gaunt-faced young boy named Leonard Thompson. He was barely 14 years old , in a coma, and slowly dying from a previously incurable disease. Macleod had been testing a hormone that could cure this boy and people just like him from their life threatening illness, but had been unsuccessful in finding something that would help. However, today was a very big day. Macleod had finally gotten a pure enough sample of dog insulin that he could give it to this boy.

“Are you ready, Mom?” Dr Macleod inquired, preparing the syringe and slipping a glance at the young boys
anxious mother.

“ I-I-I think so…” Leo’s mother whispered, clinging to her son’s cold hand.

“ One… Two… Three…” The doctor injected the mere milliliter of a miracle into Leonard’s arm and stepped back to await the results.
Slowly but surely, Leo began to blink and then rustle around in his bed. A few hours later he was able to sit up and talk a little to his mother and the doctors. Because of the most generous contribution of a young dog, Leonard Thompson (and millions of diabetics all over the world) is now able to life a healthy and happy life.

Scientists are constantly looking for new medical advances that they hope will save people’s lives and often turn to animals as the optimal resource for testing new ideas and products. These animals range from rats and mice to dogs and monkeys. On top of varying animals, the tests they run fluctuate from simply checking the effectiveness of a medicine already in use to testing an entirely new form of treatment. However, there have beens years of controversy over the morality of using animals as the test subjects.

Many people agree that animals have aided tremendously in the development of new procedures and medicines and it is completely reasonable if done in a respectable
manner.

But wait… What does this do for the animals?
We don’t test humans for them! Are their any regulation or can anyone test on anything? Isn’t a clinical trial on human enough to release a new medicine?

In the first place, the research that we gain from testing on animals helps them just as much as it helps the us. According the California Biomedical Research Association, “Animal research has helped develop many animal vaccines to fight diseases such as rabies and distemper in dogs and cats, feline leukemia, infectious hepatitis virus, tetanus, and has assisted in the development of treatments for heartworm.”

Not only does the research that we test on animals benefit humans, but it also really helps boost the world of medicine for the animals. Additionally, some of the medicines that we test for humans can be translated over to animals to help fight against the large number of animals that are dying from disease. Animals are very useful when it comes to research like this because they get to benefit from it to.

And then there are you people from PETA. Yes, you. I’m sure you are just yelling at your computer screen now. “This isn’t fair.” “It is just so cruel!” And all that “SAVE THE ANIMALS!!!” stuff. Well, there are quite a few regulations set up for the animals that scientists use in their
tests.

The National Institute of Health has very strict guidelines for how animals can and cannot be treated. They say, “Studies need to protect the animals’ welfare. That means that only the fewest number of the most appropriate species may be used. Under federal law, all animals must be treated humanely and undergo the least distress possible.”

The scientist that do these experiments have to use the utmost care in working with the animals and try and put them through the least amount of pain possible. They also work hard to review each study before it is executed to make sure that it is in the best interest of the animals to use a certain procedure. If not, they will review and make changes to make it safe for the animals while still delivering optimal results.

There are still people out there reading this that are still skeptical. Don’t humans make fine test subjects? If we are creating technology for humans why don’t we test it on them? To answer that, we have… and it did not go to well.

In 1932, the Tuskegee Institute studied how long men with untreated syphilis would survive. They tried to make it seem all happy by compensating the men with money and meals for their participation in the study, but they wouldn’t allow any men to speak about what was going on in the studies. They were all denied any medicine to help the symptoms and many died because of it.

In World War II, there was highly, highly, highly skilled man named Dr. Mengele. He was very smart, but he was also very evil. He would experiment on young men to see the highest altitude that a pilot could survive without any support. THese men would slowly suffocate in vacuum as Mengele and his colleagues cranked up the pressure and dropped the oxygen levels.

As you can clearly see, people have tried to do initial experimentation on humans in an effort to make advances in the medical world, but it is almost always at the expense of their well being and comfort - sometimes even their lives.

For years, scientists and everyday people have been in a personal “Tug-o-War” between helping animals and saving humans. Human lives should be our priority and we should everything in our power to make sure that humans get the best medicine and care possible. However, humans love animals. We feel a little tug at our heart whenever we hear about an animal being mistreated. Heck, that is the whole point of the ASPCA commercials. It is a fine line to walk and we have to do it in the correct manner: Work to respect and protect the animals, but don’t let it get in the way of saving a life.