WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH MAKES FOR SAFE AND EFFECTIVE MEDICINE?

Part 1 / Part 2
Naomi Calligare, Ireland/UK 

___What Happens When Patents Matter Less?; Current Developments in Russia to Devise a System of Health-Care that is Uplifting, Safe, Cost-Effective and Sustainable

"Whatever one's perspective on health-care it is difficult to avoid recognizing the fact that the existing system (in Britain as elsewhere) is considerably less than satisfactory for all concerned. To take a recent health-care scandal: three days ago (7 May, 1995) the front news headline of Britain's Sunday Times said -- Teenage Deaths Linked to Popular Contraceptive -- following a series of unexplained deaths and injuries of apparently fit young women taking the drug. It stated that doctors were demanding a government inquiry into one of Britain's most popular contraceptive pills. 

"According to endocrinologist Deepak Chopra, MD (India/USA), a leading international exponent of mind/body medicine, radioactive isotope studies show that the body replaces 98% of its atoms in less than one year. A liver, for example, is replaced every six weeks. With the body obviously recreating diseased cells at regular intervals (e.g. in the case of cancer of the liver, the liver cells are being recreated every six weeks), clearly there is something going on within the consciousness of the individual that is causing the individual to recreate the diseased cells. This being the case, one must seriously question how appropriate it is to cut the body (surgery), burn the body (irradiation), or poison it (chemotherapy or toxic drugs -- all medical drugs being toxic to varying degrees). 

"In the former Soviet Union, patents on medicines were less important than in Western countries. With patents owned by the state, I am advised that the commercial incentive to maximise the use of a particular drug before the expiry date of a patent was absent... 

"Despite the health crisis in Russia -- which indeed presents an enormous challenge -- there are very hopeful signs that senior Russian politicians, Russia's highly-qualified conventional medical doctors, and Russia's exceptionally-talented "folk-healers" are all coming together in a unique way that could potentially accelerate the ushering in of the emerging healing paradigms, and develop a blueprint for an uplifting, safe, cost-effective and sustainable system of health-care....With the emerging paradigms I see no need for, nor place for, animal experimentation. I believe that future generations will view the current approach to health-care as barbaric, both for what is being done to humans and for what is being done to animals. We must learn to live in accordance with Natural Law."

The above extracts are by no means the complete texts of the speeches presented, which will be published in full in the Proceedings of the Congress obtainable from DBAE.

A Renaissance for Scientific Medicine?

Published speeches from DBAE's Second International Scientific Congress, London, September 1992. (Below are extracts from some of the speeches.) 

Dr. Bernhard Rambeck in The Myth of Animal Experiments

"The absolute helplessness of today's medicine in face of the shocking cancer mortality rate; its continuing powerlessness in respect of cardiovascular diseases; its distressing failure in the area of chronic illnesses, from arthritis through allergies, asthma, auto-immune diseases, Multiple Sclerosis, and up to diseases of the gastro-intestinal tract and the nervous system -- all this is no accidental event, nor is it a particular curse of fate. Here, the logical consequences of a one-sided orientation on a wrong-model system are apparent --a model system which has been developed on the basis of animal experiments..." (p.34)

Dr. David Johnson in Animal-Oriented Medicine: The Be-All and End-All?

[Emphasizes the delays in the advancement of medical knowledge caused by reliance on animal research. Examples of this include the delay in establishing the links between cancer and smoking and between excessive alcohol consumption and cirrhosis of the liver.] 

"Over many years the experimental laboratories had failed to induce lung cancer in animals by the forced inhalation of tobacco smoke. Likewise, clinical evidence of the relationship of chronic alcohol consumption and cirrhosis of the liver was discounted, on the grounds that it could not be reproduced in the laboratory." (p 22) 

In his summary, Dr.Johnson emphasizes the ineffectiveness of, and damage caused by, the modern medications developed through animal research: "Despite animal experiments for over a century, serious health problems still exist world-wide, whilst the drug industry has blossomed, with ever-increasing and massive profits." At the same time, "It is modern medications that are responsible for 1 in 20 hospital admissions, and this percentage is increasing. Harmful reactions to medications reported to the Committee on the Safety of Medicines rose from 10,000 in 1980 to 17,000 in 1987." (p 24)

Dr. Gerhard Buchwald in Are Vaccinations Necessary?

[Discusses both the uselessness and danger involved in using animals for developing vaccines and challenges the claim of orthodox medicine that "millions of children have been saved by vaccination from grave harm and from death" as UNPROVABLE.] 

"It is, in fact, thanks to an improved sanitation generally, and especially to improved nutrition, that the childhood diseases of the past have lost their terrible effects." (p 10)

Dr. George Haritakis in The Nonsense of Vivisection

[Challenges -- as do all the speakers -- the claims that animal experiments are essential to the treatment of human illness and to improvements in human health, and he questions the motivation for continuing these methods.] 

"Most experiments are done to produce commercial publications, for profit or for academic study." (p 28)

Dr. Rambeck, in The Myth of Animal Experiments

[Points out that effective medical research is only possible without experiments on animals.] 

"Today, in nearly all fields of medicine, in vitro methods are being used in addition to animal experiments. In some areas scientists are still at the beginning; in others, as for example in AIDS research, in vitro methods hitherto had almost the only successes. The possibilities of the in vitro system are innumerable. They include the study of the pharmacological mechanisms, the evaluation of toxic risks, the genetic and teratogenic effects of chemical substances, the study of pathogenic mechanisms of viruses, the production of vaccines, the use in cancer therapy, the development of test models for immunological research and so forth." 

It is imperative that scientific medical research turn to these forms of investigations now, said Dr. Haritakis (p 34). 

He explains: "We have Medicine producing experimentally-developed super-achievements but which are not affordable for most patients anymore. We have drugs which can, in animal models, eliminate various intentionally-produced defects; but most of these drugs cannot cure the patients -- or they definitely harm them -- because a chemically or operatively-induced disturbance is quite different from a human disease, which may be produced by psychosomatic interactions and caused by multiple factors. Apart from this, an ailing human being, in all his individuality and complexity, nearly always reacts quite differently from a healthy animal." 

He asserts (p 34) that animal experiments paradoxically "...Stabilize today's illnesses, because the hope of finding drugs by animal testing destroys the motivation for self-initiative and for a basic change in our way of life. As long as we hold on to the hope of new drugs against cancer, cardiovascular diseases and so on, not only we ourselves, but also our health-care systems, are inadequately motivated to come to terms with the causes (such as smoking, alcohol consumption, wrong nutrition, and stress) of these ailments. 

Letter to the Editor

Dr. Peter Mansfield, president of DBAE, wrote a Letter-to-the-Editor, on DBAE stationary, as follows: 

The Editor
Radio Times
7th September 1995 

Dear Sir, 

re: FRONT LINE, 6th September, Channel 4 

Why do experienced professional journalists lap up so uncritically the viewpoints fed to them by powerful lobbyists -- does their survival hang on it? I refer to Polly Toynbee's remarks in your current edition about opponents of vivisection, accusing them of emotional spasms, violence and potentially homicidal outbreaks. 

She can only be getting these views from pro-vivisectionists. She has never talked to any of our members -- experienced doctors who can see the flaws not only in the methodology of animal-based so-called medical science but in the very strategy on which it is based. We should be asking not for better-trained surgeons but an end to the diseases they have to treat! Why wait for a child to get leukemia -- or asthma, coronary disease, or diabetes, for that matter -- in the first place? We have explanations already for most of these increasing problems, but do nothing about them. 

The answer is that no-one can make any money out of prevention, whereas for treatments there are patent laws to plunder. That is where the real profits are -- licence to print money with a 16-year lead on your competitor. But you have to get a medical licence during those sixteen years -- and companies are doing well if they manage that in 10. It would be impossible under present law without animal experiments, bogus and unsafe though they are. 

So let's change patent law. The real free-thinkers and brave souls are those who dare to speak this truth -- not the increasingly desperate old guard. Things have got to change because the public says so and in the end the public pays. They have the truth, and therefor time, on their side. Toynbee, and all the others who present one-sided propaganda as balanced fact, will look very silly when they at last see through the lobbyists at the view from real life. 

Professor Martin has been shopping around the television companies for more than a year now. Whenever he appears he has the lion's share of the time. The opinion of our members has been deliberately suppressed by the presenter in at least one case. This time he has surpassed himself. He and I discussed, on video, two viable explanations and solutions for the arterial disease problem, which he had never researched. Neither called for animal experiments. Both were safer and cheaper than existing treatments and current lines of research. The problem? The active agents in each case are cheap and well out of patent. These discussions were not included in the short clip that was broadcast. 

My case rests. 

Yours truly,
Dr. Peter Mansfield
M.A., M.B., B.Chir (Cantab)
NHS Family Doctor, Health Service innovator, 25 years
President, Doctors in Britain Against Animal Experiments 

Dr.Moneim Fadali, distinguished heart surgeon, USA, anti-vivisectionist and DBAE patron, in reply to a question of how to go about stopping animal experiments, said: "Educate ourselves, our own families, our friends, our work colleagues, our community, the world at large. They should know the facts as they are." 

The Way Forward for DBAE

"We need all hands to the wheel. If everyone gave just a little bit extra time and effort, we could hasten the day to achieving our goal. Are you doing enough? Ask yourself, could you do more? There are many ways: distributing our leaflets; writing to the press; keeping us informed; organising public meetings; speakers to clubs, schools and universities, etc., (which we can provide); recruiting members to DBAE (medical, associates or friends); organising fund-raising events, e.g. coffee mornings, car-boot sales, etc. -- or write us a cheque. Remember DBAE in your will (write to us for details). 

"No organization can exist or expand successfully without finance. DBAE is not a rich society and depends largely on the support of its members and friends, of which it has a number -- loyal and dedicated supporters -- who raise money in a variety of ways to ensure that DBAE can not only survive but can move forward and spread out. To our network of activists nationwide, who contribute in so many ways, our warm thanks, and to all who continue to support us even if you are unable to give as much. You are DBAE's lifeblood! 

"We do not operate from plush offices and our staff are volunteers. In its short life DBAE has hosted three International Scientific Congresses, and has achieved world-wide recognition and produced a number of important publications. WE have constant interviews with the media, including tv and radio; we write letters to the newspapers (some DO get published); we respond to a stream of inquiries from a variety of sources seeking information. All this costs money -- rent, telephone, equipment, postage, stationary, etc. We are also in touch with organizations around the world. 

"DBAE has recently published a new leaflet, Human Victims of Animal-Based Medical Research. One way of following Dr. Fadali's advice is to order copies of this leaflet and distribute them as widely as possible (cost: L 2. per 100 incl. p&p). 

"Here are some suggestions to reach people: 

Watch out for DBAE's next move! We are taking a big leap forward. 

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