To the Editor:
I am writing about an event yesterday afternoon concerning protesters canceling a neuroscience lab because of the use of live rats in research experimentation. First of all, I would like to say WHAT GIVES YOU THE FUCKING RIGHT! How dare you waste someone's education and tuition, whether paid or earned, when they obviously chose to enroll in the course to further expand their academic knowledge. Just because you do not have the same beliefs or values does not give you the right to interrupt someone else's education. They did not enroll in the course to watch their professor sadly cancel a very important class on comprehending the mechanisms of addiction in the brain.
Those who were involved in the protest clearly cannot look beyond their narrow Oberlin vision to see the broader picture involved in research. This is not for frivolous purposes such as shampoo and conditioner. The use of rats has been discussed since the first day of lab. The lab is not for any person wishing to enter and experiment on live animals. It is a lab designed as an upper-level biology course designated for neuroscience majors and others possibly going into research or medicine. The skills acquired in this lab are invaluable for many uses in other fields including the fight to find a cure for AIDS. How do you expect to advance medical science without a deep knowledge of how biological systems work or in knowing how to apply advanced research techniques. Even if new drugs or vaccines are tested in vitro on synthesized cells, further tests must be undergone in animals before they can safely be tested on humans and marketed for the general populace. It is quite possible an Oberlin grad could find the cure for AIDS or breast cancer, but not at this regressive rate.
This event is such an outrage, it would be as if a Religious Right group on campus marched over to the art building and canceled a class because it displayed nudity or sex or they could even destroy an exhibit in the museum for the same purposes. These events amount to no more than academic censorship. In my opinion those involved in the protest are no better than any religious right wing advocate by imposing your righteous, idealistic, and moralistic beliefs on others.
In short all I have to say is SMART'N UP ECO-BRATS.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 22; April 26, 1996
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