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LETTERS: Colin Blakemore and Tony Peatfield Missing evidence that animal research benefits humans: Moratorium is unjustified BMJ 2004; 328: 1017-c-1018-c [Full text]

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Research and serendipity

Alfred N Jackson   (1 May 2004)

Research and serendipity 1 May 2004
Alfred N Jackson, Primary care physician Bulawayo Zimbabwe Send response to journal: Re: Research and serendipity	The letter by Colin Blakemore and Tony Peatfield(Missing evidence that animal research benefits humans:Moratorium is unjustified)published in BMJ 24/4/2004 touches on a fundamental flaw in biological sciences.I presume that results of experiments on other animals are extrapolated to humans because of numerous similarities observed in physiologies of various other animals and humans.I had previously assumed that such extrapolations might be considered valid if,indeed,other animals and humans were in any way related.You can imagine my surprise when I realised that humans cannot possibly be physically related to other animals.I will explain this statement shortly.Now if,as I am obliged to conclude(see below),humans are not at all physically related to other animals,the benefits gained from animal experiments(and,no doubt,there have been several such benefits)have been gained only by serendipity,i.e. purely by accident.And these accidents have indeed occured, and we have benefited from them. The facts which demonstrate that humans are not related to other animals can shortly be summarised as follows: 1)those chromosome numbers of some other animals and some plants(and there are relatively few such numbers published-for reasons which are obscure)do not suggest that humans are related to other organisms.A relatively short list of such numbers can be found on www.kean.edu/~breid/chrom2.htm 2)Meiotic cell division is designed in such a way as to preserve the identity of species(synapsis,first essential step in meiosis, can only occur if homologous chromosomes synapse,and synapsis can only occur if composition of inherited parental chromosomes is not substantially altered, and sexual reproduction can only occur if meiosis occurs, and therefore sexually reproducing animals can only reproduce for as long as their chromosomal identity has been preserved in their germ cells and gametes).If,by accident, such animals produce offspring with substantially altered chromosomes or altered chromosome numbers,e.g Down's synd. or Turner's synd. such offspring are invariably infertile. It should be clear,therefore, that plants and animals alike are related only to members of their own species,unless any species have been incorrectly defined. Therefore the only evidence that animal experiments benefit humans is that evidence which has been obtained by serendipity. Competing interests: None declared