The Buzz: Leukemia Patient Blames Animal Research

In an opinion piece published in the Huffington Post Wednesday, a woman dying of leukemia vehemently spoke out against animal testing in medicine, positing that scientists might have found a cure for her condition by now if "they weren't sidetracked by misleading animal tests." While acknowledging the unfortunate nature of the woman's situation, ScienceBloggers are criticizing her stance that animal trials are not beneficial or are somehow to blame for the woman's sickness, asserting the necessity of using animal models for drug research and reinforcing that researchers must proceed in ways that minimize the suffering of even the tiniest of subjects. "[She] should not be allowed to use her own impending death to falsely claim the role of a martyr to animal rights research, a martyr whose life would have been saved if it weren't for [the] animal researchers who are... ironically enough, trying to find ways to save the lives of patients just like her," said ScienceBlogger Orac from Respectful Insolence.

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Remember earlier this week when we were discussing some of the positions people might hold with respect to the use of animals in research?
Today at the University of California at Los Angeles, a rally is planned to raise awareness about the value of responsible animal research and to denounce acts of terrorism toward animal researchers and their families.
Many of my ScienceBloglings have rightly called out animal rights terrorists who target researchers' children. They are absolutely right to do so.
Yesterday, as part of ongoing follow up on my story in this week's New York Times Magazine, I posted about