A Publication of The American Physiological Society The Physiologist Volume 44, Number 1 February 2001 Personal Reflections on the “Animal-Rights” Phenomenon Adrian R. Morrison, University of Pennsylvania Personal Attention greatly: he was abandoned by all but a few of us; The phone rang on Sunday morning, January he used up his personal savings defending him- 15, 1990 while I was sitting on my living room self; and he was without a job for six years. couch completing a paper on the use of animals Ultimately, he triumphed. Because court battles Inside in biomedical research for a symposium spon- kept the animals alive for several years beyond sored by the American Association for the the purposes of the original experiments, record- Council Meets Advancement of Science. The Associated Press ings from the cerebral cortex (when they were p. 3 had called to get my reaction to the news that the eventually released by the court for a four-hour Animal Liberation Front (ALF) had broken into recording session prior to euthanasia) revealed a my laboratory. My heart sank as I thought: “They degree of reorganization in the brain in adult New Members Only finally got me.” monkeys that was unexpected (24). Furthermore, Section of APS The raid focused on my office, which they Taub and his colleagues have demonstrated that Website trashed while ransacking my files. I learned later stroke victims can be trained to use an arm ren- p. 16 that someone wanted evidence the government dered “useless” by a stroke (132, 38). This is was paying me to defend biomedical research. accomplished by forcing the patient to employ They were wrong. the affected limb for various tasks by restraining APS Collaborates I was shocked but not surprised—indeed, sur- the normal one. Taub had come to this idea with With Project WISE prised that I was so shocked. The animal rightists his studies in monkeys that had demonstrated p. 17 had good reason to be angry with me so I knew I that they could be trained to use the affected arm was vulnerable. Nevertheless, nothing prepared without sensory feedback following section of me for the media barrage [including a grossly the dorsal roots. EB 2001 Program distorted article featuring me in The Village Certainly, PETA had noticed my involvement p. 26 Voice (26) later sent by People for the Ethical in the Taub case. For example, they included a Treatment of Animals (PETA) to all in my com- newspaper’s quote of my rejection of the idea munity], hate mail and death threats over the that researchers are sadists in a cleverly edited NIH Gets 14% telephone during the following days, weeks, and half-hour video made from 60 hours of tapes the Increase months. ALF allegedly handed them after they raided the p. 37 It all began long before, of course. Probably Head Injury Research Laboratory of the the germ of an idea seeded itself in 1981 when I University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine began to defend a neuroscientist, Dr. Edward in 1984. PETA grossly distorted the case for its NIH Increases Taub of Silver Spring, Maryland, from trumped- own benefit. Responsible scientists and veteri- Training Stipends up charges he had treated his monkeys with de- narians were in honest disagreement over the p. 38 afferented limbs cruelly (18). Taub suffered actual conditions of the baboons used during the Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 44:1 (2001), 62-75. experiments. Even the executive director of the © The Johns Hopkins University Press. Reprinted with Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press. (continued on page 7) Vol. 44, No. 1, 2001 1 Published bimonthly and distributed by The American The Physiological Society 9650 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20814-3991 Physiologist ISSN 0031-9376 Gerald F. DiBona Volume 44 Number 1 February 2001 President Walter F. Boron Past President John E. Hall Contents President-Elect Martin Frank Editor and Executive Director Personal Reflections on the NIH Increases Training Stipends 38 Councillors “Animal-Rights” Phenomenon Outgoing Administration Pursues Hannah V. Carey, William W. Chin, Adrian J. Morrison 1 Research Ethics Initiatives 39 Douglas C. Eaton, Steven C. Hebert, 107th Congress Faces Phyllis M. Wise, Jo Rae Wright Council Meets in Scottsdale 3 Organizational Hurdles 40 Task Force Reports 4 Ex Officio NIH Notices: Protocol Review Dale J. Benos, Membership Procedures and Animal Care Mordecai P. Blaustein, Policy Materials 41 Robert G. Carroll, New Regular Members 14 President Signs Chimpanzee Judith A. Neubauer, Celia D. Sladek Accepted Student Applicants 14 Retirement Law 41 New Members Only Section of the Porter Donates Campaign Funds Publications Committee: Chairman: APS Web Site 16 to Endow Research Chair 41 Dale J. Benos; Members:David H. Alpers, R. Davis Manning, Jr., Education Activist Organizations Continue Richard A. Murphy, James A. Schafer. APS Collaborates with to Grow 42 Director of Publications: Margaret UC-Berkeley’s Project WISE to “Communicating About Science”: Reich. Design and Copy Editor: Joelle R. Grossnickle. Develop Interactive, Web-based EB Public Affairs Symposium 42 Subscriptions: Distributed to mem- Science Activities 17 bers as part of their membership. APS Participates in NABT 2000 Positions Available 43 Nonmembers in the USA: individuals Conference 18 $45.00; institutions $70.00. Nonmembers in Canada and Mexico: APS Seeks Higher Education Book Reviews 50 individuals $50.00; institutions Programs Coordinator 18 $75.00. Nonmembers elsewhere: indi- Explorations in Biomedicine 52 viduals $55.00; institutions $80.00. Books Received Single copies and back issues when Funded for Five Years 19 available, $15.00 each; single copies Obituary and back issues of Abstracts issues ACDP News when available, $25.00. Subscribers to Donald J. Reis 53 Johnson Receives ACDP The Physiologist also receive abstracts of the Conferences of the American Distinguished Service Award 20 Physiological Society. People & Places 55 The American Physiological Society APS Conferences 24 assumes no responsibility for the Announcements 57 statements and opinions advanced by Experimental Biology contributors to The Physiologist. Deadline for submission of material Distinguished Lectures 26 Scientific Meetings for publication: Jan. 10, February Program 28 and Congresses 58 issue; March 10, April issue; May 10, Poster Sessions 33 June issue; July 10, August issue; Special Functions 35 Sept. 10, October issue; Nov. 10, APS Membership December issue. Public Affairs Application 59 Please notify the central office as soon as possible if you change your 106th Congress Grants NIH 14% Corrigenda: address or telephone number. Increase 37 The APS apologizes for incorrectly Headquarters phone: 301-530-7164. NIH to Create New Bioimaging identifying the person in the top-right Fax: 301-571-8305. Institute 37 photograph on page 470, Volume 43, #6 http://www.the-aps.org Congress Provides a 9% Increase of The Physiologist. The person shown Printed in the USA for VA Medical Research 38 is Oliver Smithies. 2 The Physiologist Council Meets in Scottsdale Council Meets in Scottsdale The APS fall Council meeting was held in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Regal McCormick Ranch on November 18- 20, 2000. During the meeting, several new ini- tiatives were approved in an effort to continue to provide the Society’s mem- bership with ongoing opportunities. With respect to publications, Council approved providing the APS online col- lection (now available for $49.50) free to all members in good standing, including students, as of January 2002. This will enable members to have access to the online journal collection at home and on the road. This is an espe- cially welcome member benefit for APS Council in Scottsdale: Back row (left to right): Dale Benos, Jo Rae Wright, Steven overseas members who will have access Hebert, Gerald DiBona, John Hall, Doug Eaton, Hannah Carey, Barb Goodman, Mordecai Blaustein. Front row (left to right) Walter Boron, Phyllis Wise, William Chin, to the current journal issues more Celia Sladek, Curt Sigmund (for Judith Neubauer). quickly. Also approved was the recom- mendation of the Publications Dale J. Benos, Publications Committee new members-only area of the APS web Committee to bundle all of the review Chair), a Task Force on Communica- site. In that area, members will be able articles from the various journals at one tions/Public Information (chaired by to update their membership informa- location on the HighWire website. This Hannah V. Carey, APS Councillor), a tion, including address and sectional will allow readers to go to one site and Physiological Genomics Task Force affiliation, pay dues and subscriptions, see all the review articles that were pub- (chaired by William J. Chin, APS search the member database for other lished in all the APS journals rather than Councillor), and a Translational members in their field or locale, modify having to go to each individual journal. Research Task Force (chaired by Steven which listservs they are subscribed to, The 2000 Strategic Plan had called C. Hebert, APS Councillor, and John and access the APS bulletin boards and for a new conference series on physio- E. Hall, APS President-elect). Council chat rooms. logical genomics. Curt Sigmund and received preliminary reports from these Council continued to be impressed Craig Gelband are organizing the first task forces at the fall meeting (see com- with the efforts of the International of these new conferences, which will be panion report, p. 4). A new task force, Physiology Committee. The Latin entitled “Physiological Genomics of the Task Force on Sections and Groups, American Initiative is a new program Cardiovascular Disease.” A tentative is currently being assembled. Former initiated by the Committee this past date of February 21-23, 2002 has been Section Advisory Committee Chair, year. The first full round of applications set, with a tentative location of San Richard J.