X-Message-Number: 8918
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #8908 - #8914
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 21:14:19 -0800 (PST)

Hi everyone!

A short comment to Steve Jackson: if we were to experiment on chimps or 
bonobos (I'd be against that unless it were a matter of IMMEDIATE life or
death, which it is not) then we'd do so on healthy ones. Also, there is
at least one primate dumber than chimps, gorillas, or bonobos (though it
isn't used at all in expeirments, so it raises another problem). 

Frankly I would not object to a biopsy, if carefully done. And with a biopsy,
plus the fact that we are very close to apes and monkeys genetically and in
our anatomy, I think we can work out just what happens without actually
killing any chimpanzees along the way. We really are much closer than most
people would be willing to admit. (More than 90% of the genome is the same,
for instance). So given that, and biopsies, I see no special reason why we'll
have to experiment on other human beings or even other apes. We'd use the
biopsies just as final confirmation of our results with monkeys.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

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