The Lord is blessing us immeasurably with advancements in medical science. During Bible times, oil and wine were the basic medications. Only in relatively recent years has much progress been made beyond that.
As recently as the American Civil War, less that 150 years ago, more soldiers died from germs than from guns. Cannon balls and bullets they could see and understand. Germs, they couldn’t.
In matters of health and wellness, God has made life more pleasant for us than for any generation in the past. To some degree our good health has come at the expense of animals used in laboratory experiments, which has given rise to active opposition to their use.
According to syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, animal rights groups held a convention in Washington this year to promote the view that animals have at least as many rights as humans, and that to use them in scientific experiments to find cures for human diseases is cruel and must be outlawed.
Any civilized person would be appalled at the suggestion of inflicting undue pain on any living creature, whether human or animal. But using animals in controlled scientific laboratory experiments for the purpose of helping humanity is quite a different matter. It’s far better to use a real guinea pig than a human one. We might do well to think of medical advances made through such experiments as gracious gifts from God.
As an example of animal rights extremism, Thomas mentions a world-renowned entertainer who led a campaign against the March of Dimes because it works with animal research, while his wife was undergoing breast cancer chemotherapy which was developed through animal research, mostly on fruit flies, mice, and rats. 90% of such research is done with rodents. (Some of the very animals with reputations for spreading plagues and destruction now help bring healing and health.)
Let us praise the Lord for giving us fruit flies, mice, rats, and whatever other animals are required to do the needed research, and for the dedication of the scientists who have blessed our lives by their skills and hard work. The Bible refers to “our dear friend Luke, the doctor,” who just may be smiling down from heaven, pleased with the progress of medicine and his colleagues.