From: jhoskins@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James M Hoskins)
Subject: Re: Hypothetical Situation
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 00:44:58 GMT

In article <9dTj02b92e=.01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> tsr00@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Ted
Robinson) writes:
>
>Of course I'm not aware of this. As you well know, I was placed in suspended
>animation in December of 1992, revived 4 years later, then immediately placed
>on this committee. Apparently our society has undergone significant political
>changes, a "journey" that I was not privy to.  As a result, I am at a
>complete loss for context.
_____________________________________________________________________
Fact Set:

Ted Robinson sits on the Lawrence Review Board.  This is a citizen
group which by United States law has final and irrevocable say on animal
research project approval.  Scientists come before the board and are
questioned in whatever fashion the board members choose.  A majority YES
means the project is approved; and of course NO means No.

Dr. Sun has come before the board in 1996.  She explained that she is
involved in cellular enzyme work.  She uses the ground hog, and needs
to kill about 30 annually to proceed with her work.  She noted to the
panelists that she uses the ground hog because a local airport has a
program of having trained sharpshooters kill ground hogs compromizing
airport safety.  The airport manager allows her to live-trap ground hogs
at no expense, and thus the use of ground hogs has proved to be convenient
for her.  She could have just as easily commenced her research with a
rat or mice focus.  Her research, she explained, is "basic."  She has had six
refereed journal publications in recent time, including articles in _Nature_
and _Science_.  She knows of no immediate "benefit" to medicine or people
or even ground hogs coming from her research.  She has constructed an
elaborate system of underground burrows to facilitate a stress-free
existence during the animals' brief passage through her lab.  However, it
was noted that all the ground hogs are injected with a painless radioactive
isotope "marker," 48 hours later they are killed with the same substance
that animal shelters use to euthanize dogs and cats.  None of the ground
hogs will leave Dr. Sun's lab alive.

For a month Ted Robinson has refused to vote.  Other members of the LRB
have placed votes and left the Board.  There are two members who have
voted YES and two members who have voted NO.

For the third time Dr. Sun has entered the conference room, with the
moderator, where Ted Robinson sits.  She is troubled by Ted's claim
that he has been in suspended animation, perhaps questions his ultimate
sanity.  She doubts very much that her project proposal will be approved.
Nevertheless she regrets the rather discourteous manner in which she most
recently treated Mr. Robinson.  Due to a mood of resignation, Dr. Sun has
achieved a radiant calm.

_________________________________________________________________________

Moderator:

Mr. Robinson, we have noted your claim that you lack a context to
render a vote due to your four year stay in suspended animation.

With Dr. Sun's prior permission I will undertake the task of supplying
some of that context.

In 1993, the number of citizens reading talk.politics.animals grew
by about 10000%.  A particular social movement in Ontario, Canada
had its genesis.  It was called the Saint Rosemary Movement.  Ro, a
t.p.a participant, spoke eloquently of farm animal suffering and
garnered a worshipful following.  She was not abusive, nor was she
arrogant, and she answered questions presented to her in a
straightforward manner, always communicating with certitude the ethical
superiority of her position.

And, frankly, she scared the hell out of the meat industry.

Concurent with the rise of the Saint Rosemary Movement, Ingrid
and Alex had their 40 year prison terms overturned by the Supreme
Court of the United States.  More significant, they received about
20 million dollars in the wrongful imprisonment suit they filed
for the prison time they did serve in 1993.

In their time away from the animal rights movement, it seems that
Ingrid and Alex's influence had been usurped by the Saint Rosemary
Movement and--you guessed it--Russell Lawrence.

Lawrence, a shadowy, elusive figure had been featured in a late 1993
_Time_ feature article under the title "The Only Thing That Can't Be
Taught is a Sense of Humor."  In spite of a generally negative press,
the fact remained that Lawrence had an IQ off the charts, a tenacious
quality, and an increasingly loyal following who appreciated his hard-nosed,
confrontational style.

So, in spite of a 20 million dollar bankroll and a certain fleeting
notoriety due to their wrongful imprisonment, Ingrid and Alex found
themselves no longer in the vanguard of the animals rights movement.

And that, that scared the hell out of them.

Lawrence too felt pressure from the rising Saint Rosemary Movement--a
certain diminution of popularity.  We are into early 1994 now.

So here's what happened, as best we know.  Lawrence, who had worked
as a usenet activist since 1991, was lured away from his job at
talk.politics.animals by Ingrid and Alex's 10 million dollar offer
to finance a nationwide effort to get a constitution amendment passed
that would mandate citizen review boards to be the final arbiters of
all animal research proposals.  Lawrence accepted the challenge.
Effectively, this neutralized Lawrence's participation in the outlet
that fed his popularity.  By late 1994, Lawrence was a non-factor.
After some initial popularity the idea of the Lawrence Review Boards
fell flat.  Ingrid and Alex, who had tied their fortunes to Russell
Lawrence with their fortune, once again felt their influence wane.

But, the Saint Rosemary Movement continued to rise in popularity.
Real dents in Canadian per capita meat consumption were being made.
Again, the United States meat industry was scared crazy.

The meat industry joined forces with Russell Lawrence, Ingrid and Alex--
of course the cooperation of the meat industry was unbeknownst to the
originators and architects of the Lawrence Review Board Constitutional
Amendment idea.

Lawrence saw the Amendment ratified by 45 states and become law in
April of 1996.  It seemed that all attention, both in the United States
and Canada, was now focused on animal research, the fate of strains
of mice and rats bred for research.

The meat industry was absolutely overjoyed at this result.  The felt
also that they had stacked the procedural characteristics of the Lawrence
Review Boards in the favor of project approval.  Panelists were chosen at
random and given honorariums of $2000 for their participation.  The honoraria
came out of the budgets of the researchers submitting proposals.  This was
a clever provision indeed.  It meant that most people contacted by the
Lawrence Review Board administrators would serve, not just those people
(perhaps like you Mr. Robinson) who feel strongly one way or the other
about animal research.

Late into 1996, no research proposal had been turned down by a Lawrence
Review Board Panel.  There were signs that attention directed initially
by the Lawrence Review Boards toward animal research was decreasing.
Ever lurking north on the horizon was the threat of a Saint Rosemary
Movement resurgence.

Then, as fate would have it, Russell Lawrence was chosen, at random, to
serve on a Lawrence Review Board.  The media went absolutely crazy.
Lawrence had sensed as early as June of 1996 that he was a tool of the
meat industry to deflect attention away from meat industry practices; he
knew this for sure as we entered autumn of 1996. You'll recall, Mr. Robinson,
that Lawrence quietly voted YES to Dr. Sun's research proposal.  With chagrin,
as the weeks of December 1992 passed, Lawrence looked on in horror
as tabloid magazines like the _National Enquirer_ featured "Man in Suspended
Animation Serves on LRB" front page stories and more sophisticated
publications such as _The Wall Street Journal_ carried more thoughtful
articles like "Robinson to Determine Future Focus of Animal Rights Movement:
Will it be Ground Hogs or Ground Hog?"

Now we wait for your vote, Mr. Robinson.

I believe Dr. Sun has one or two brief statements to make.

Dr. Sun:

Mr. Robinson, I have reread your ethical treatise.  Basically
I am a research scientist here before you to gain approval for my
ground hog research program.  I am not equipped nor am I particularly
interested in exploring the ethical ramifications of your decision
making process.  I am told by the moderator that after you vote you
may read your statement into the record.  Of course, I will read it
with interest.

You have though, asked me about how I feel my research might diminish
or end suffering.  Again, I answer that my research is "basic" and I
do not have an answer to that question.  You also asked me how my
research fits into a greater context of research that would diminish
suffering.  Again, it may or may not be likely that at some time in
the future a small piece of what I do may be used to diminish suffering.
I am ill-equiped to offer speculation as to these matters.

Will you please vote now, I have been away from my family, my research
and my ground hogs for one month now.



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Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals