A Protest Against Monkey Business at OSU
This is a copy of the flyer distributed at the 12/5 demonstration held at Wiseman Hall
on the Ohio State University campus.
In September 1997, POET requested an inventory of non-human primates currently being for used
for experimentation at OSU. At that time, we were told the number was 30, of which 4 were
baboons. Now, with the speedy approval of just one protocol that number increases to 120
baboons (plus 60 pigs).
Dr. Robert Michler, formerly of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, is the principal investigator
for this project which will evaluate cardiac preservation solutions used in cardiopulmonary bypass,
allograft (same species transplant), and xenograft (cross-species transplant) procedures.
But is Ohio State University really taking the first step towards a baboon to human heart
transplant?
We are alarmed that this project was put on a fast track starting with its submission to the
Institutional Laboratory Animal Care and Use Committee (ILACUC) on November 10 and
culminating in its approval less than three weeks later.
POET believes that OSU is rushing full bore into xenotransplants without input from the public who
will bear the cost of this technology.
Commenting on an article authored by Dr. Michler in the journal, Emerging Infectious
Diseases, Claude E. Chastel, a virologist, writes, “the dilemma is not to know in what ‘foreseeable
future, clinical xenotransplantation may achieve its targeted goal of extended graft survival,’ but
what deadly emerging infectious disease, most probably viral in nature, would arise in a recipient of
a baboon or chimpanzee heart.”
“Xenotransplantation does not simply pose an ethical problem; it concerns the survival of the
human species, an endangered species if transplant practitioners continue their course.”
The Animal Protection Institute states, “Behind xenotransplantation lies the age-old assumption
that human beings are the masters of all creation and therefore entitled to use animals as they see
fit. Animals have the right to live, to be free of pain and suffering, and to pursue their own natural
and essential interests. All human and nonhuman animals have special and unique traits and
deserve moral considerations in their treatment.”
The Medical Research Modernization Committee has commented that, “Xenotransplantation
places public health at substantial risk and hence is an unacceptable technology. In light of
epidemiological, public health, medical, scientific, economic, and environmental issues
surrounding xenotransplantation, MRMC advocates an indefinite freeze on all forms of
experimentation and clinical application of the technology.”
July 1999 Update
The status of this project has been modified over the year.
May 1998 - 16 female Olive Baboons arrive at Ohio State University from Osage
Research Primates, located in Osage Beach, MO.
Within a couple of months the baboons are transferred to Tulane University.
Why? Rumor is that the private funding for this project dried up and the expense
of supporting the primates for a number of years would be too high. Rumor? Especially
when...
September 1998, an amendment is approved to 97A0191, "Cardiac Preservation Solution
Study", where 90 cats are requested. The protocol does not mention xenotransplant
but does discuss heart transplantation.
What next ????? The project remains approved to use baboons.
Robert Michler has since left The Ohio State University
- Currently there are no xenotransplant projects of this type being conducted
at OSU. - 5/11/06