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Animal Rights and Wrongs
Josh Stern (UNSW) and Eugenie Lumbers (UNSW) Wednesday October 28, 1998 Duke of Edinburgh, Pyrmont Science in the Pub considers the ethics and moral dilemmas of research involving animals with Dr Josh Stern and Professor Eugenie Lumbers, both from UNSW. To get us warmed up here is a little poem from Josh: "What's this all about?!"
exclaimed the Judge, "This is really preposterous,"
he said, "and I haven't got the time! "It's simple, Sir, I'm suing you,
on behalf of these roos. "That's mad!" said the Judge,
"That's mad!" he cried, The Judge stayed calm and let out a
sigh, The counsellor lost heart and looked
sadly at one roo, He never went to school and he's very
bad at maths, So he can't communicate, and he lacks
our kind of smarts, Much more than their cages in which
they sit and rot, The judge was getting angry and flustered
all at once, But not to be outdone, Eugenie offers us the following in return: Some mutterings on man and animals; a perspective? To be or not to be Of man's inhumanity to man Don't pretend! Lear cried (with apologies to Shakespeare) The next poem is by Dr A Stevens, a scientific collaborator of Eugenie's with a poetic bent, who felt he had to put pen to paper on behalf of animal based medical research. The old man and the pee The old man tottering down the road
* shows he loves animals Dr Josh Stern currently holds (very tightly in his hands) a recently awarded PhD in Biology from UNSW. He was a Fulbright Scholar from the United States but, having fallen in love with Australia, hopes to reside here. His qualifications are numerous. He is well practised at impersonating a philosopher, and considers himself a highly trained daydreamer. When avoiding research, he plays chess, reads sporadically, invents, and writes poetry and fiction. This is his first appearance speaking to the public. Eugenie Ruth Lumbers is Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at UNSW. Many years ago she decided that medical research was the way she wanted to practice medicine as it offered a way of helping people to health. She may have been foolishly inspired by reading biographies of Pasteur, Curie etc as a child. She is particularly interested in the impact or quality of life that is experienced by the fetus `in utero' because of its potential life long impact. The fetus in utero can be abused by maternal drugs, smoking and alcohol intake but as well may be affected by the `efficiency of those systems that deliver its food and oxygen'. Her work is carried out in experimental animals-the chronically catheterised fetal sheep and from those experiments the researchers working with her study the physiological responses of the fetus to changes in its environment from the level of its brain activity down to changes in gene expression. SciPub is held the last Wednesday of the month in the Duke of Edinburgh pub, 152 Harris Street, Pyrmont, 2009 from 7-9pm. Telephone (02) 9660 8146. UBD Map ref pg235 P10. Park at Star City if coming by car. For further information on `Science in the Pub' please contact Robyn Stutchbury on rstutch@ozemail.com.au of Peripatus Productions Pty Limited, 1 Carisbrook Street, Lane Cove 2066, Tel: 02 9427 6747, Fax: 02 9418 9605 Next Science in the Pub session, 25 November 1998 Science in
Art - Art in Science.
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Science in the Pub, © 2000. Stutchbury, R, Burton, M. |