A scientist who is also a human being cannot rest while knowledge which might be used to reduce suffering rests on the shelf.
My own experience of over 60 years in biomedical research amply demonstrated that without the use of animals and of human beings, it would have been impossible to acquire the important knowledge needed to prevent much suffering and premature death not only among humans but also among [other] animals.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the crucial role of animal and human research in advancing medical knowledge and preventing suffering.
Albert Sabin highlights his extensive experience in biomedical research, asserting that the use of animals and humans has been essential to gaining significant insights that have ultimately helped save lives and alleviate suffering. He suggests that without such research, crucial medical advancements would not have been possible, underscoring the ethical importance of medical experimentation in improving health outcomes for all living beings.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a conference on medical ethics to illustrate the importance of animal research.
More from Albert Sabin
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Science, in the broadest sense, includes all reasonable claims to knowledge about ourselves and the world.
...great difficulties are felt at first and these cannot be overcome except by starting from experiments .. and then be conceiving certain hypotheses ... But even so, very much hard work remains to be done and one needs not only great perspicacity but often a degree of good fortune.
The radical novelty of modern science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief... that the forces which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of the human heart.
I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in this book which I have written concerning the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, I ascribe certain motions to the Earth, they will cry out at once that I and my theory should be rejected.
And there is a lot of idiosyncrasy. But there are also regularities and phenomena. And what the data is going to be able to do - if there's enough of it - is uncover, in the mess and the noise of the world, some lines of music that actually have harmony. It's there, somewhere.
There is enough information capacity in a single human cell to store the Encyclopedia Britannica, all 30 volumes of it, three or four times over.