Use humans, not animals, for research into treatments

http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2013/oct/20/animal-testing-use-humans-instead

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The article on marmosets used in experiments at King's College London ("The ethics of animal tests: inside the lab where marmosets are given Parkinson's", News) painted a remarkably positive picture of life in the laboratory ahead of the series of debates sponsored by a pro-vivisection lobby group.

They might be fed marshmallows and have knitted hammocks, but the brain-poisoned marmosets are also left essentially paralysed, mute, rigid and unable to groom or feed themselves. Yet the result is no more than a crude and simplistic model of Parkinson's disease that is completely unreliable in predicting human outcomes. Contrary to the extraordinary claims quoted in this article, today's most successful treatments for Parkinson's (levodopa, selegiline and apomorphine) were pioneered in human trials. Indeed, it is only by focusing on non-animal research that we can hope to move from treating Parkinson's disease to curing it.

<strong>Isobel Hutchinson</strong>

Animal Aid

Tonbridge

Kent

<strong>Face the facts, Theresa May</strong>

Nick Cohen correctly notes that evidence-free beliefs are frequently expressed in terms of feelings rather than facts ("In Mrs May's surreal world, feelings trump facts"). When the believer says "it feels" or "I feel that" (and then expresses a fact or thought rather than a feeling), they are masking their true feelings and voicing their opinion. The device is useful as "I feel" is difficult to argue with. The skill of unpacking beliefs, thoughts and opinions masquerading as feelings would promote an honest exchange of views and values. The real feelings of fear, anger, frustration and resentment that lie behind the public's reported opinions could be addressed openly and may even lead to honest debate.

<strong>Dr Anne Brockbank</strong>

London N1

<strong>Do try to contain yourself</strong>

A very interesting article from Harriet Meyer about the use of shipping containers as homes to battle the housing supply crises ("Would-be buyers home in on the DIY solution to Britain's housing crisis", Cash). However, this is nothing new. For many years, shipping containers have been used to house students in Amsterdam. For instance, there's Wenckenhof, a student campus consisting of 1,000 containers. The containers have all the mod-cons, plus a balcony or garden, and are indeed fun and comfortable to live in, judging by the long waiting list.

<strong>Willem de Blaauw</strong>

Amsterdam

<strong>New meaning to a close shave</strong>

Perhaps Jonathan Franzen ("The Kraus Project", New Review) might have done better to quote a snappier Karl Kraus prediction of our mobile phone intoxication. In 1909, in an essay called Reforms, Kraus re-enacts the advent of the safety razor to exemplify a modernist "reform". As the new gadget privatises the function of shaving and removes it from the social encounter of the barber's shop, he mock-laments the spiritual void of the customer deprived of the barber's pamperings and chatter, but proposes a mock-resolution: the invention of a talking razor, capable, at the press of a button, of reciting all the unsolicited pleasantries of a barber – the stuff that was anathema to the satirist. Who says Kraus wasn't a modernist?

<strong>Gilbert Carr</strong>

Stillorgan,

Co Dublin

<strong>Not easy to save the children</strong>

Your letters page headline was half right ("We all have a duty to step in when the young are in danger", Big Issue). In the immediate postwar period, the general public still felt a collective duty towards local children. Consider how different things may have been for poor James Bulger – and his abductors – had several adults challenged them.

By then, however, the disastrously counterproductive "Stranger Danger" campaign had resulted in most adults choosing to keep away from any children unknown to them. Fearing false accusation, adults still stay aloof even when a child might possibly be in danger. It is not easy to see how some form of in loco parentis can be restored.

<strong>Alan Hallsworth </strong>(professor emeritus)

Portsmouth

<strong>BBC can learn from X Factor</strong>

Barbara Ellen rightly applauds the broad ethnic mix of ITV's <em>The X Factor </em>("Huge plaudits for the X-Factor's colour-blindness", Comment). The BBC's <em>Strictly Come Dancing</em> is careful to include at least one ethnic minority celebrity in each series. But of 38 professional dancing coaches from many countries featured over 11 series, not one has been black or non-white.

<strong>Joseph Palley</strong>

Richmond

Surrey

<strong>I can rise to the occasion</strong>

In "It's baking me mad. Why it's time to call a halt to this latest food fetishism" (Viewpoint), Viv Groskop says: "Google the word "duffin", which was not on anyone's radar a week ago." Tell that to the many of us where the name appears on our birth certificates.

I prefer macaroons any day.

<strong>Catherine Gerlach, née Duffin</strong>

Alton

Hampshire

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